Learning the ABCs of CPR

Much heartbreak might be avoided if more people learned CPR. The American Heart Association reminds people, “Getting people to act quickly in a cardiac arrest emergency is critical to a victim’s survival because time is not on their side. Four to six minutes is the window of opportunity for someone to act before it is too late, but fewer than one-third of cardiac arrest victims get CPR from someone nearby.”

That was the idea guiding YU graduates Shael Sokolowski and Dudie Silberman, who decided to found Manhattan CPR in 2009. Both have medical training: they have been EMTs for years and frequently see the devastation caused by medical professionals arriving on a scene too late to help.

Sokolowski, who also works in marketing and has just earned his MBA, declared, “Dudie and I felt duty-bound to share our knowledge with as many people as possible. Knowing CPR can mean the difference between life and death. Further, we recognized a Torah-based imperative and responsibility in the pasuk, ‘kol Yisrael areivim ze la’zeh,’ (each Jew has responsibility for one another). And that’s how Manhattan CPR began.”

Most recently, the social volunteer force JCorps hired Manhattan CPR; Sokolowski and two co-instructors taught about 60 of their members. Manhattan CPR is also organizing classes with synagogues and other communal organizations in the New York area.

Sokolowski has seen an uptick in the number of requests to organize classes in the past few months.

Sokolowski credits the firm’s strong online presence but also highlighted tragedies — including several drownings within and outside the Jewish community — and the deaths of several prominent athletes, as well as calls in the media for laypeople to learn rescue techniques.

A class in Brooklyn last month (full disclosure: it was arranged by this reporter) brought more than half a dozen people together to learn Heartsaver AED Adult, Child and Infant, a three hour course covering CPR and Heimlich Maneuver techniques to save adults, children and infants/toddlers who are choking.

Shevy Singer of Brooklyn, a first-time mom of a ten month-old, said, “I took this CPR course because I am a stay-at-home mother, and I thought it would be important to know what to do for my baby in an emergency situation. If I had a babysitter, I would want her to know CPR so it’s hypocritical of me not to know it myself. I think it is so important for people to learn...it only takes a couple of hours to learn and it could save a life...you never know when you might be in that kind of situation.”

As expectant parents, Brad and Avital Greenbaum of Forest Hills felt duty-bound to attend the course. “As a mother to be, I found this class extremely essential. I couldn’t live with myself if my child was in trouble and I had to wait for help without being able to step in and help,” said Avital.

There weren’t only parental figures in attendance: Esti Profesorske, an MBA student at Baruch College, also took the Brooklyn course. She said, “The last time I learned CPR was in high school and I forgot most of the details. I signed up for this course because it was convenient, one time for three hours as opposed to a couple of classes, and a small setting. The instructors were very clear and thorough — they went through all the basics and they had us practice. None of us ever want to have a chance to use what we learned but G-d forbid, if we need to, we’ll be well prepared.”