Orange County schools partner with physicians and first responders to teach CPR

ORLANDO, Fla. – Orange County public schools partnered with doctors and first responders to teach students CPR on Thursday.

dr Gul Dadlani is the chief of cardiology at Nemours Children’s Health. He said he looks forward to teaching a life-saving skill like CPR to children in the Orange County school district.

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“What we want is to enable people to respond when asked to do so,” Dadlani said. “So when you learn CPR, 80% of the time you’re going to use it on family members or friends, and if someone goes down in front of you, we want people to use only their hands for CPR. That means you don’t have to worry about inhaling.”

Dadlani, along with OCPS and first responders, helped train more than 33,000 students in honor of World Heart Day on Thursday.

“Without CPR, only 10% of people survive a sudden cardiac arrest with CPR, and with community use of defibrillators, that number can be more than 60%,” Dadlani said. “We want everyone in Orlando to have those skills. You know, I’m so happy that the Orange County Public Schools, administration and school board empowered students to learn CPR and possess this life-saving skill.”

Orange County School Board member Alicia Farrant said district-wide education saves lives.

“Last year we actually had a student who took the class and four hours later at his job he was actually able to save someone’s life,” Farrant said.

Farrant said recent Buffalo Bills safety scare Damar Hamlin emphasizes the importance of learning CPR.

“I think students are realizing that this is a real, actual problem that they could face, whether it’s at home, at a basketball game, at school, at their work, or just out in the community. They realize they’ve seen that firsthand with this football player and something they could use in real life,” Farrant said.

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