Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 (Agenda)
Item A1
A-1 is to approve resolution recognizing the week of June 5th through 11th, 2011 as take heart Austin week 2011 in the Austin Travis County community.
morning.
>> thank you, subject.
there are about 600 cardiac arrests in Travis County every year.
>> dr. Hinchy, would you introduce yourselves to the thousands of television viewers.
>> this is dr. Paul hinchy, our Travis County medical director.
he has some important words for us today.
and can you introduce lewis.
>> this is lewis gonzalez.
he's the creator of the take 10 cpr program, which I'm going to talk about in a moment.
and we're here today because roughly six hundred people every year suffer cardiac arrest in Travis County.
our e.m.s.
system and our first responders resuscitate about 15% of those folks.
that's about double the national average.
but we think we can do better.
some of the best cities in the country resuscitate about 20% of their population.
the only thing that differentiates those systems from ours is their bystander cpr rate.
in those cities that have a 20% resuscitation rate, almost 60 percent of their citizens who suffer sudden cardiac death get bystander cpr compared to ours, which is about 30 to 34 percent.
our first responders and our e.m.s.
providers are doing everything they can to bring the latest technology to our citizens.
but the real difference is bystander cpr.
so we're trying to take advantage of cpr awareness week and promoting the idea and the knowledge of the importance of cpr in the community, how to get training in cpr in the community.
we've created an innovative program that only takes about 10 minutes.
virtually anyone can learn how to do cpr and most importantly anyone who is interested can take that training on to someone else and teach friends and neighbors how to do cpr without any other training.
so we're kicking off the the week of June 6, cpr awareness week, to have a county campaign to improve citizen awareness of our programs and hop fly have people go out, learn cpr, use our program, act and save lives.
thank you.
>> thank you.
>> additional comments?
>> every year I attend this event.
and I'm sorry to say I'll be out of town this coming week.
it's really an event everyone should attend.
to witness the testimonies that come forward, but also to see peement who respond along with the survivors is quite touching.
but more importantly you will see a campaign from us to where we'll really try to get out and promote this new program because we think it's so vital to our community.
I appreciate the work that paul is doing and lewis and all those that are involved in this and I'm glad to be sitting here and discussing this particular topic with you today.
>> what are we doing about outreach, doctor?
it is a great program.
whatever we're doing, I want to make sure that folks are apprised what we're doing as far as outreach to maximize participation.
so go ahead.
>> what we're trying to do is the program is unique in that we can bring it anywhere.
it's very, very portable.
so any first responder organization, any county organization, we can bring them in, teach them the cpr program and with a lot more time teach them to be an instructor.
and the idea is we give them free kits they can take back to their organization and train everyone in the department or in their organization there and educate the community.
those people in turn can borrow kits from us and take them to their local church, to their homeowners association, to anyone in the community and continue to teach it.
so itself-propagating.
>> let me ask this question in another way.
what are we doing in Travis County to make sure outreach is maximized?
do we have anything per se on the channel 17 Travis County website indicating those things you just mentioned?
>> we don't because we're kicking that off with the start of the # June 6 with the cpr awareness week.
right now we're working with danny's office to, to get all the employees educate understand the cpr program and from those groups we hope to get people enthusiastic about it and we'll turn them into trainers.
>> we're actually going to be working with chuck watt.
I've connected him with paul.
and of course as you know, chuck handles a lot of the cpr training.
I just saw him next door to me working on it.
we're going to be bringing in the tso, constables and the parks department and stress to them the importance they have in our community not only in what they provide in their everyday activities, but also how to add to the feature as well.
they were very responsive, Commissioner, in regards to becoming more involved in this type of effort.
so you think you can dance as you know, they're always out in the community, but we now need to train them, provide them some equipment.
that's what I'll be looking for is some grants that will actually-- I'd like to see in every vehicle an aed.
I would like to see every officer, regardless of whether it's tso, parks, or the con tables, I would like to see them trained because that's where it's at, the first responder.
and we look at first responders sometimes as e.m.s.
or emergency services districts, but first responders often are that deputy or that constable at a traffic scene especially.
>> as far as availability is concerned, I'm really concerned if we could get a little extra mileage, a little extra boost in making sure that outreach is maximized.
maybe at some point in time we could look at putting something on channel 17 television to enhance what we're doing here.
>> Commissioner, and perhaps you could speak to this, there's a video that will be developed that will go along with this training that we could broadcast.
I agree with you we should broadcast it on channel 17.
>> we should do all the outreach.
>> along with con tables and tcso and park rangers, this is about empowering us regular folks as bystanders to also be heros.
and it doesn't take much time to train up so that when you find yourself in that circumstance, you're not waiting on a uniformed personnel to show up.
you can be a part of the slietion sleution and one of the most amazing things about this celebration that happens every year is that you see a survivor flanked by all the people who played a role in their sphieferl.
>> that's why I second your motion to approve the resolution.
any discussion on the motion?
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
thank y'all very much.
we appreciate all that you do.
>> thank you for coming down.
>> thank you.
>>
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