Skip to Content

Free CPR Training for Veterans and Family Members

CPR Training at Tuscaloosa VA
By Stephen Tyler, Visual Information

The Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center is partnering with the Skilled Trades Center of West Alabama, to bring free CPR Training to Veterans and family members who would like to gain lifesaving skills to help respond to breathing and cardiac emergencies.

Our Veterans Health Education Coordinator, Sharon Allen was inspired to bring change when watching, like many Americans, the Monday Night Football incident involving Damar Hamlin and the extraordinary exploits of assistant athletic trainer Denny Kellington. 

“I know many people were watching Monday Night Football when Damar Hamlin had his collision,” Allen said. “To my knowledge he has no deficits, and they are saying that most are giving credit to his bystanders who immediately started CPR.”

Mrs. Allen points out that the quicker you start CPR, the more positive the potential outcome.  The Tuscaloosa VA offers CPR classes for veterans and their family members, Allen said, because that helps ensure veterans can have the care they need in an emergency.

“Because if our veterans are home and suffer some type of event, we want their family members to be comfortable to go ahead and start CPR.  Many times, if people don't have a medical background, they're a little afraid that they're going to hurt the person. This training is to show them you're not going to hurt them. We're going to show you exactly what to do. We want to start our classes April the 3rd. It's on a Monday, and then we'll be giving those classes on subsequent Mondays. After that, we are going to start out with two classes a day from 9 am to 11 am and 2 pm to 4 pm, and then we have the capability of doing one at night.”.

Classes start April 3. To sign up contact Sharon Allen by email sharon.allen3@va.gov .

Where:  Skilled Trades of West Alabama 1300 James I Harrison Jr Pkwy, Tuscaloosa, AL 35405

When: Mondays at 9am-11am and 2 pm-4 pm

 

Why Bystander CPR is necessary:

  1.  When bystanders correctly perform CPR, they can keep someone alive until emergency responders arrive
  2. When performed immediately, Bystander CPR can double or triple the chances of survival from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
  3. Getting trained is easily accessible and is not hard to complete. 
  4. It can save your life, your children’s lives, your parent's lives or even stranger’s life, and is something you will remember throughout your lifetime
  5. CPR is a critical first-aid procedure for the survival of cardiac arrest victims.  The quicker CPR is initiated the better the outcome
  6. Statistics indicate 73.4% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests most often occur in homes/residences followed by 16.3% which occur in public settings.  Rapid CPR is crucial for patient survival