HCFAS Trained Cub Scouts on Life-Saving Lessons

At Trinity Regional School, Huntington Community First Aid Squad (HCFAS) Chairperson Kathy Castillo and committee members Laurie Hoffman, Israel Cortez, Rich Cortez and Carol Nucci trained 38 Cub Scouts and some of their siblings on the life-saving procedure.

Hands-Only CPR has proven a successful approach in empowering bystanders to give life-sustaining compressions prior to EMS arrival. Hands-Only CPR can be a life-saving difference for someone who has suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. There are almost 400,000 cardiac arrests yearly in the United States and less than half of them receive CPR. Hands-only CPR is easy and involves no mouth-to-mouth contact – only pushing hard and fast on the chest. Hopefully the Cub Scouts will never have to use it, but their preparedness could save a life.

Training young people has proven so successful that 20 states now teach Hands-Only CPR as part of their high school curriculum. New York stands to become the 21st state after the New York State Senate passed legislation and Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law a measure directing the state’s commissioner of education to come up with a CPR training curriculum.

Groups like the American Heart Association had pushed to make the training mandatory for all high school students, citing cases in which lives were saved by someone performing CPR. Supporters of the training say it can be done in as little as 30 minutes.

The boys were all Cub Scouts ranging from 1st to 5th graders. It was a wonderful experience for the boys who felt that they would be even better prepared to fulfill the part of their official Cub Scout Promise that states “I promise to do my best… To HELP other people…”

About Huntington Community First Aid Squad: Huntington Community First Aid Squad provides Advanced Life Support Ambulances and Emergency Medical Services to residents within the town of Huntington since 1967. All-volunteer crews are ready to go 24/7, 365 days a year, to answer the call from neighbors in need. The Huntington Community Ambulance District covers an area from Lloyd Harbor and Lloyd Neck in the North – to Melville in the South and from the Nassau/Suffolk border and Cold Spring Harbor in the West – to Greenlawn and Dix Hills in the East. Over 280 volunteer members responded to more than 5,600 calls in 2013.