Three years ago, Radnor Township Police Officer Anthony Radico, 46, was just finishing a routine workout at a gym in Upper Darby when suddenly, he went into cardiac arrest. His sister, who was at the gym with him, ran for help. Luckily for Radico, Amanda Beal was also at the gym that day. Upon seeing that Radico was unresponsive and had no pulse, Beal, who had learned cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) just one year prior as part of a master’s program of occupation therapy but had never used the technique in a real life scenario, began administering chest compressions. Beal continued CPR until paramedics arrived. Before being resuscitated with an automated external defibrillator (AED), Radico was “down” for 7-8 minutes – a certain death sentence had Beal not been there to help. Today, Radico, a father of three, is back to work on the police force.
Cardiac arrest kills more than 1,000 Philadelphia residents every year, yet there is a therapy that we all can learn that can double a victim’s chance of survival. CPR can be done by anyone, yet the percentage of people who receive bystander CPR in Philadelphia is half the national average.
To tackle the issue and help overcome this health disparity, on Tuesday, June 7, experts from Penn Medicine’s Center for Resuscitation Science and department of Emergency Medicine will officially launch Philadelphia’s Mobile CPR Project, a public health initiative that aims to educate as many Philadelphia residents as possible in hands-only CPR, free of charge using an innovative video learning approach that takes less than 30 minutes per training. Funded by Independence Blue Cross, project organizers will host training sessions in at community centers, shelters, schools, religious organizations, and community health fairs. Certified health care providers will travel to a training sessions in the Mobile CPR van, bringing all of the necessary presentation materials, and providing CPR Anytime® kits that participants can bring home with them to show their families or use to practice their skills. The overall goal of the initiative is to bring vital, life-saving training to those who might not seek such training on their own.
In 2012, Penn Medicine piloted the Mobile CPR Project in Hartford, Conn. The initiative resulted in more than 5,000 Hartford residents trained in delivering CPR.
The Mobile CPR Project launch is part of The Philadelphia Regional CPR Awareness Coalition’s CPR Ready campaign, an initiative also launching on Tuesday, June 7, that is designed to increase the number of people in the region who are qualified and willing to perform bystander Hands-Only CPR, as well as use an automated external defibrillator (AED). Click here for more information about the full kick-off event, which includes informative panel discussions.
WHAT: Mobile CPR Project & Hands-Only CPR Demo
WHEN:
Date: Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Time: 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
WHERE:
Location: WHYY Studio
150 N. Sixth Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
WHO:
- Benjamin Abella, MD, MPhil, director of the Penn Center for Resuscitation Science and director of the Mobile CPR Project
- Kenneth Margulies, MD, professor of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and president of the Philadelphia chapter of the American Heart Association
- Cardiac arrest survivor Anthony Radico and Amanda Beal, who saved his life
Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.
Penn Medicine is an $11.1 billion enterprise powered by more than 49,000 talented faculty and staff.