CPR is a simple lifesaving skill that just hasn’t caught on like it should. With 70 percent of Americans lacking the knowledge to perform CPR, Jackson Health System, the University of Miami, and Miami-Dade County Public Schools, in collaboration with the American Red Cross of Greater Miami and the Keys and the American Heart Association, will host CPR Day Miami. It is a free, countywide training event for participants age 11 and older, on Saturday, September 6. Available at seven locations, the training sessions are offered multiple times between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. at each location – and it takes just 90 minutes.The official opening ceremony for CPR Day Miami takes place from 10 to 11 a.m. at UM’s BankUnited Center Fieldhouse, with Carlos Migoya, president and CEO of Jackson Health System, UM President Donna E. Shalala, and Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, in attendance. Online registration, which is preferred, will be available until noon on Friday, September 5 at www.CPRDayMiami.org. Walk-ins will also be welcomed on a standby basis, all day at all sites.
The importance of knowing how to perform CPR made international headlines this past February when then 5-month-old Sebastian de la Cruz stopped breathing in the backseat of his aunt’s car. His aunt, Pamela Rauseo, performed lifesaving CPR on Sebastian on the side of a busy Miami expressway, as a Miami Herald photographer captured dramatic images of the harrowing ordeal.
Sebastian was rushed to Holtz Children’s Hospital at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center, and today is healthy, happy, and getting ready to celebrate his first birthday in September.
The sponsoring organizations and their affiliates, which also include local fire and labor unions, have joined forces to bring this lifesaving skill to thousands of families on “CPR Day Miami” at the following locations, simultaneously throughout Miami-Dade County:
University of Miami
Fieldhouse at BankUnited Center
1245 Dauer Drive, Coral Gables, 33146
John A. Ferguson Senior High School
15900 S.W. 56th Street, Miami, 33185
Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School
1410 N.E. 215th Street, Miami, 33179
Greater Miami & The Keys Chapter of the American Red Cross
335 S.W. 27th Avenue, Miami, 33135
Coral Reef Senior High School
10101 S.W. 152nd Street, Miami, 33157
Booker T. Washington Senior High School
1200 N.W. Sixth Avenue, Miami, 33136
Hialeah Gardens Senior High School
11700 Hialeah Gardens Boulevard, Hialeah Gardens, 33018
