What’s behind a Charlottean’s push to get everyone in Charlotte CPR certified
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A spring barbecue, a pool party, a soccer practice — you wouldn’t think that these events would be life or death situations. But without the ability to keep your cool under pressure or the knowledge of CPR, they might be.
In Charlotte, over the past few months, there have been several instances in which someone’s life has been saved because a person in the crowd knew how to do CPR.
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Here’s Todd Buelow’s story
At a party this past spring, Charlottean Todd Buelow recalls how quickly things turned from relaxing at an outdoor party to performing CPR on a blue-faced 3-year-old after the child was dragged limp by another father from the pool. But Buelow and a friend acted fast. Their instincts kicked in, they performed CPR, and the child’s life was saved. And Buelow hasn’t forgotten the experience — if anything, he’s more focused on what happened then ever.
And this was his takeaway…
The experience made Buelow realize how pertinent CPR really is, how fortunate the child was, how CPR shouldn’t be a “maybe” kind of thing.
Water safety isn’t a joke, he says. Parents need to be a aware that they are watching the pool, not just be hanging around it. Even as children get older, accidents can happen and you never know when someone will need assistance.
Since you never know how one person is going to respond in a disaster situation, it’s important that as many people as possible learn CPR to increase the odds that someone will recover from shock and be able to save a life.
The facts
- In the United States, about 3,500 people die annually from drowning.
- CPR, especially if performed in the first few minutes of cardiac arrest, can double or triple a person’s chance of survival.
- Drowning is the 2nd leading cause of unintentional death in children aged 1-14 years.
- About 424,000 people experienced out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the U.S. in 2014.
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And now here’s Buelow’s plan
Simple. Get everyone in Charlotte CPR certified because you never know when you’re going to need to use it.
Yeah, this sounds like a massive undertaking. But Buelow is determined, and as a first step, he’s organized a CPR certification course at Sugar Creek Brewing in July that has already sold out.
It’s going to take real Charlotteans, taking initiative, and organizing themselves to get certified, he says. Don’t be the one who stands and watches the next time someone collapses.
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It’s about action and being prepared for the worst.