About 1200 national and international CPR instructors, EMS providers and community champions attended the Emergency Cardiac Care Update (ECCU) in Las Vegas June 13-15th. We are thrilled to be hosting ECCU in Las Vegas, highlighting the latest science and education in CPR and AED use in a community that has led the nation in this approach, said Tom Aufderheide, MD, President of the Citizen CPR Foundation, which conducts the conference every two years. The survival rate from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in Las Vegas casinos is among the highest in the nation, thanks to prompt use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) by security guards.
The conference opened with a welcome from Honorable Oscar Goodman, Mayor of Las Vegas, followed by a keynote address by Mickey Eisenberg, MD, PhD, and Tom Rea, MD, MPH, of Seattle/King County: Improving the Odds of Cardiac Arrest Survival—Formula for Success.
“I am so excited that this melting pot of scientists, CPR trainers, community advocates and industry partners are exploring ways to save lives, from futuristic Formula One race car techniques to “Hands Only” CPR for everyone,” said Vinay Nadkarni, MD, conference chair.
The SCA Foundation played a role at ECCU by contributing to sessions on school-site CPR-AED programs and promoting stories of survival.
Stuart Berger, MD, medical director of Project Adam and SCA Foundation adviser, and Mary Newman, executive director of the SCA Foundation, facilitated a workshop on “Creating Successful CPR and AED Programs in Schools.” Newman also facilitated “How They Beat the Odds: Spectacular Stories of Survivors and Rescuers.” During this session, survivor and SCA Foundation board member, David Belkin Esq. described his brush with death at an elementary school in Pennsylvania, and publicly thanked community champion Rachel Moyer and co-founder of Parent Heart Watch, for her role in placing the AED that rescuers used to save David’s life.
The SCA Foundation also presented its first ever People Saving People™ award—an effort to recognize “ordinary people” whose extraordinary efforts have helped save lives.