‘A huge difference’: MoCo fire department launches 10-minute CPR training campaign to boost survival

‘A huge difference’: MoCo fire department launches 10-minute CPR training campaign to boost survival

Trey Henderson, then a 39-year-old assistant coach with the Georgetown University football team, was routinely tossing footballs during an early morning practice on Sept. 5, 2019, when he collapsed.

Players and staff watched in shock as he crumpled to the ground, lying lifeless without a pulse on the campus football field.

He had gone into cardiac arrest.

Roughly 1,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen every day in the United States, with nearly 90% of them fatal, according to a recent report by the American Heart Association.

Henderson’s team sprang into action, enacting their emergency plan. Travis McCormack, then an athletic trainer at Georgetown, performed CPR with the help of three teammates and used an automated external defibrillator (AED) to restore Henderson’s heart to a steady rhythm, the two men recounted Saturday at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring.

Henderson, joined by McCormack, was one of two survivors of a cardiac arrest who shared their stories during MedStar Health’s second annual hands-only CPR and AED training event held at the high school. The free event attended by nearly 200 participants was co-hosted by Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS), Montgomery County Public Schools and the Theta Omega Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.

“You never know when you’re going to be called on. … It could be a family member. It could be somebody you see,” Henderson told Bethesda Today. “If you have the skills and have been trained [in CPR], there’s no reason to not step in and do it.”

During the event, MCFRS introduced “Take10 Montgomery,” a new campaign encouraging residents to take 10 minutes to learn CPR through free training. The training is available by request to any individuals or groups who contact the department’s community action coordinator by email. MCFRS staff will hold the training in homes, schools, workplaces, community centers or places of worship, according to the department. 

“The first six minutes in any cardiac event make the biggest difference. It’s going to take [MCFRS] six to eight minutes to get there, but if we can get bystanders comfortable doing CPR, that makes a huge difference in survival rates,” said Lt. Irvin Smith, a MCFRS community action coordinator who introduced the campaign.

He said he hopes to train 15% of county residents in bystander CPR — a goal that would help the county earn HEARTSafe Community status. Residents in HEARTSafe communities are 10% more likely to survive out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, according to MedStar Health.

Though the Take10 campaign is new to Montgomery County and took Smith about 10 months to develop, the initiative has already been implemented in cities, including Austin, Texas, and Cincinnati, which are both now recognized as HEARTSafe communities.

Saturday’s event at Blair, which included educational and hands-on training, presented “an opportunity for us to make sure that our county is safe,” Dr. Estelle Jean, a cardiologist at MedStar Montgomery Medical Center, told Bethesda Today. “At times, we may not feel comfortable doing this life-saving intervention because we don’t know how to do it.”

During the educational portion, survivors and speakers from each host organization stressed that neither CPR certification nor mouth-to-mouth contact is required to perform what’s known as bystander CPR — a chest-compression-only resuscitation performed by someone at the scene, often with no medical training, before first responders arrive.

During the hands-on session, MedStar Health physicians, first responders and athletic trainers taught participants using CPR manikins and AEDs in the high school gym. Training in how to administer naloxone, a drug used to reverse an opioid overdose, was also available. The sessions were offered in English and Spanish.

Taylor Pinthiere, a 21-year-old graduate student and county resident, attended the event with her father, a member of MCFRS. Though she had been certified to administer CPR in the past and grew up understanding its importance, she praised the event for its accessibility.

“A lot of people don’t know how to get involved, but it’s easy … especially when it’s at a high school and everybody knows where it is,” she said.

Smith, who grew up in the county, said he appreciates the importance of the county’s diversity as well as its welcoming environment – and the role those factors can play. “We are a welcoming community, and that means we like to help,” he said. “We don’t care what you look like … it just takes two hands and chest compressions.”

Despite the diversity, Smith and Jean said the county still has care disparities based on gender and race that mirror national trends. Women, as well as Black and Hispanic people, are significantly less likely to receive bystander CPR than men and white individuals, they said.

They hope the “Take10 Montgomery” campaign and free public events such as Saturday’s training session can help close those gaps.

“We know that people want to help. There’s such wonderful kindness and commitment in our community to improve all levels of care,” Jean said. “Our job is to … make [CPR] accessible, make it easy, make sure that questions are answered.”