HARRISBURG, Pa. — Hamilton Health Center has distributed 150 CPR kits to families in Central Pennsylvania to equip them with the right tools in case they ever need to save their infant’s life.
The kits' focus is on teaching CPR and choking relief for newborns to one-year-old children.
Capital Blue Cross donated the CPR kits to Hamilton Health in hopes of curbing infant deaths due to choking or suffocating.
“We feel that, certainly, the parents who receive this kits, that they will prepared and ready to save a life if need be, which certainly helps us to feel great in that we are serving our community," said Melisa Burnett, an employee of Hamilton Health.
The kits come with an infant CPR mannequin, a 22 minute training DVD, and two quick reminders of how to complete important skills.
“They’re learning compression, they’re learning how to give breaths, checking the victim for the pulse, everything that you would need to do for CPR, resuscitation," said Burnett.
Equipping parents with the ability to perform CPR for their child is something that has been a huge need, according to Hamilton Health Center.
“A lot of families feel helpless without knowing what to do and the kits that we received, they are very straightforward, very simplistic to understand, and it comes in Spanish as well as English... This really helped them to feel at ease if the need were to rise, to be prepared, possibly save a life," said Burnett.
Through the initiative, each kit has been distributed.
Capital Blue Cross provided FOX43 with a statement saying in part:
“In the frightening event of an infant suffering from cardiac arrest or having an airway blocked, prompt recognition and immediate CPR are the keys to survival,” said Susan Hubley, Capital Blue Cross Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility. “That’s why we’re so thrilled to have provided these kits to Hamilton Health Center.”