DETROIT – The city of Detroit was named the largest city in the country to earn the HEARTSafe Community designation.
Communities that earn the designation have a documented increase in the number of people who know how to perform CPR and have an increased readiness for how to handle cardiac arrest events.
Background: Detroit working to teach more residents hands-only CPR
“This is a testament of the Detroit firefighters’ commitment to the health and safety of anyone who lives, visits or works in Detroit,” said Detroit Executive Fire Commissioner Chuck Simms.
After more than a decade of working to improve survival rates for Detroiters who suffer cardiac arrest, the city celebrated Tuesday, Aug. 27, after being named the largest municipality to achieve the HEARTSafe Community Designation
Earning the distinction was hard work.
“There’s 13 rigorous points that we had to meet to become a HEARTSafe Community,” said Jeff Forbes, with the Detroit Fire Department Training Division. “Obviously, CPR is a huge part of it. As part of that, we had to train a minimum of 15% of the population of Detroit in at least hands-only CPR. We blew that out of the water with training over 100,000 citizens in Detroit.”
Additionally, more than 500 automated external defibrillators are registered across the city.
Local 4 received recognition at the event as one of the community partners by helping train more than 1,500 Detroiters in hands-only CPR in February. But it wasn’t just us, it took churches, schools, nonprofits -- the entire community to make it happen.
---> CPR training resource guide: Why it’s important, how it works, how to get trained
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