American Heart Association Honors Alameda County Students, Schools for Increasing CPR Capacity Within Community

American Heart Association Honors Alameda County Students, Schools for Increasing CPR Capacity Within Community


The American Heart Association will recognize two 7th grade students and 30 Alameda County schools on Saturday for outstanding work to increase CPR knowledge and skills within the community.

The students are Wilson Hoang, of Alvarado Middle School in Union City and Winnie Chen, who attends Sunol Glen in Sunol. After receiving training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) at school with a CPR Anytime Friends & Family kit, Wilson used his kit to train 96 additional people in CPR. Winnie used her kit to share CPR skills with 51 people.

“These young people are to be commended for their hard work in not only learning the life-saving skill of CPR but in sharing it with the community in such a deep and significant way,” said Junaid Khan, M.D., President of the East Bay Division of the American Heart Association and a cardiac and thoracic surgeon at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland. “When someone suffers a sudden cardiac arrest, CPR can double or even triple the chances of survival.”

The 30 schools to be recognized Saturday have offered CPR training to 9,500 7th grade students this school year through Alameda County’s new CPR 7 initiative. Each student received his or her own CPR Anytime Friends & Family kit, containing an instructional CD and an inflatable manikin. The kits were developed by the American Heart Association and are designed to teach CPR skills in 22 minutes. Students were challenged to use their personal kits to train additional people. Wilson and Winnie were the county leaders in bringing CPR to others.

The schools receiving recognition are: Albany Middle School; Longfellow Middle School; Martin Luther Middle School; Willard Middle School; Canyon Middle School; Creekside Middle School; Eleanor Fallon Middle School; Horner Junior High; Walters Junior High; Christensen Middle School; East Ave. Middle School; Junction K-8; Mendenhall Middle School; Joe Mitchell School; Alvarado Middle School; Cesar Chavez Middle School; Alliance Academy; Montera Middle School; Roots International Academy; United for Success; Piedmont Middle School; Hart Middle School; Harvest Park Middle School; Bancroft Middle School; John Muir School; Bohanan Middle School; Edendale Middle School; Washington Manor Middle School; Sunol Glen; and Mountain House School.

Each year in the United States, Emergency Medical Services treats nearly 300,000 victims of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Less than 8 percent of them survive, and less than one-third receive bystander CPR. Without immediate CPR, a person has very little chance of surviving.

The students and schools will be recognized Saturday evening during the UC Berkeley women’s basketball game. Game time is 7:30 p.m.

Learn more about CPR at www.heart.org/CPR. CPR Anytime kits ($34.95) may be purchased at www.ShopCPRAnytime.org.