Staying alive

Wright State University is the inaugural host of the nation’s first mobile CPR training kiosk, provided by Kettering Health and the American Heart Association, Dayton.

Based in the Student Union, the kiosk provides hands-only training in CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) to the public in five minutes or less. It features a touchscreen video with an overview of hands-only CPR, followed by a practice session and a 30-second test. With the help of a practice manikin, the kiosk gives users feedback about the depth and rate of compressions and proper hand placement.

During a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the Student Union, Wright State University President Sue Edwards, Ph.D., said, “The Wright brothers were innovators, and this is an innovation. Wright State is grateful to be selected first.”

She added that students, faculty and staff will be able to put the lessons provided by the kiosk to good use and help save lives in the Wright State community.

Kim Rex, the chief administrative officer of the Wright State Boonshoft School of Medicine, CEO of Wright State Physicians and board chair of the American Heart Association, Dayton, said Wright State was chosen to be the kiosk’s first site because of its medical school and nursing program in the College of Health, Education and Human Services.

“What better place,” she asked rhetorically.

Over the next three years, the kiosk will move among nine different sites, making the training available throughout the Dayton region. The kiosk is expected to remain at Wright State at least through the spring semester and will return to Wright State for Welcome Week and the beginning of the fall semester.

The kiosk will be available to the public and will be located in the Student Union Atrium, likely near the Campus Recreation’s Fitness Center.

From left, Kim Rex, Boonshoft School of Medicine chief administrative officer and Wright State Physicians chief executive officer; Alina Joseph, executive director of heart and vascular services at Kettering Health; and Wright State President Sue Edwards during a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the Student Union for the mobile CPR training kiosk. (Video by Kris Sproles / photo by Erin Pence)

The university will promote the availability of the kiosk through social media, news stories and university-produced videos on TVs throughout campus.

“Every prospective student and their parents come through the Union,” Rex said, so the kiosk will be readily seen.

The Heart Association noted the importance of CPR training: More than 350,000 cardiac arrests occur annually outside of a hospital setting, and more than 20% occur in public places such as airports, casinos and sporting facilities. CPR can double or triple a person’s chance of survival. Studies show that hands-only CPR is equally as effective as conventional mouth-to-mouth CPR, and people are more likely to feel comfortable performing it.

Speakers at the ribbon-cutting cited the importance of CPR in the case of Damar Hamlin, the Buffalo Bills football player who went into cardiac arrest during a game on Jan. 2 in Cincinnati. Emergency medical attendants successfully resuscitated him, and he was hospitalized. Hamlin is recovering and attended Sunday’s Super Bowl with those who performed the life-saving service and cared for him in the hospital.

In emphasizing Wright State’s commitment to promoting the kiosk, Rex asked that anyone who watches the video and practices on the model of a torso post selfies and tell the Wright State community about their experience with the kiosk.