American Medical Response's Unconventional CPR Lessons Keep People “Staying Alive” in South Florida

On Wednesday the group broke a record by teaching 51,000 people CPR

With a little bit of rhythm and some help from the BeeGees, American Medical Response just broke a world record on teaching chest compression-only CPR to keep people "staying alive."

On Wednesday alone, 51,000 people learned how to save a life. The previous record for compression-only CPR was 22,000.

“What we did was we loaded up a squad of paramedics and EMTs to go out into an area with our CPR mannequins and teach them for two minutes how to do compression CPR," said Mark Olieman, AMR’s Clinic and Education Services manager for South Florida.

All the while wearing clown wigs and dancing to the 70s classic "Staying Alive" by the BeeGees.

It was all part of the "One Day AMR World CPR Challenge" held in 41 States and two foreign countries.

Alex Castro with American Medical Response said, even with all of the silly fun they have - hopping out of ambulance trucks and dancing - the CPR lessons are sure to stick.

“Once you have experienced it in a controlled environment with professionals and you are able to use a mannequin, the chances of you remembering that in the event of a situation dramatically increase,” he said.

When it comes to CPR, some people shy away from it because they don't want to use mouth-to-mouth. But medical research shows that compression-only CPR increases survivability by 30 percent.

Sarah Olieman, 11, says compression-only CPR training taught her how to save lives.

“Now if there was a baby in trouble or a person they know or even a stranger they can step in and try to help them,” she said.

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