BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — About 40 administrators and staff members with the Baton Rouge courthouse participated in a hands-on educational course to save lives.
“Seeing the young man with the Buffalo Bills who had a cardiac event while playing football. That raised the awareness of it can happen anywhere,” Kevin Bolds, Judicial administrator, said.
Bolds said the incident with Damar Hamlin prompted him to urge the administration to implement CPR and AED training.
Hamlin, a safety for the Buffalo Bills, collapsed in early January on the field during a game.
“Once you dial 911 it might take us a few minutes to get to your scene. So, if no one’s doing CPR or minutes that pass by, it’s really impacting the patient’s survival rate. So, if they are able to have effective CPR until we arrive on the scene and take over, it can really make a difference in somebody’s life, ” Brad Harris, Emergency Medical Services public information officer, said.
Meanwhile, Bolds said he has a family history of cardiac disease and wants his colleagues to be more knowledgeable on how to handle life-or-death situations.
“People coming into the building every day. We have had events where we had to call 911, but we wanted to take this extra step in case something happened that we would be prepared to deal with it,” Bolds said.
Harris shared how the courthouse will utilize the AED kits once they are installed.
“Install one on every floor of the courthouse if possible. Depends on the funding. They’re going to have everybody trained on how to use it so that in the event of a cardiac arrest, they will be able to do CPR, get the AED, and hopefully save someone’s life,” Harris said.
Employees will receive a certification once training is complete and the courthouse plans to have the AED kits installed sometime this summer.
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