Damar Hamlin inspires uptick in corporate CPR training in WNY
Michael Derme has been taking a lot more phone calls ever since Buffalo Bills' safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field in January.

"Even though we've been doing this for years and years, after the Damar Hamlin situation the phone has been ringing off the hook," said Derme, founder and training center director at Buffalo CPR.

His company provides American Heart Association training programs to both medical professionals and private companies. Derme estimates it's seen a 40% increase in business since Hamlin became national news.

Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest during a Jan. 2 game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Medical professionals administered CPR for nearly 10 minutes and used an automatic external defibrillator to restart Hamlin's pulse. He spent a week at the University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center, was transferred to Buffalo General Medical Center on Jan. 9 and released from the hospital two days later.

In early February, Hamlin partnered with the American Heart Association to launch the #3forHeart CPR Challenge, encouraging people to learn CPR and donate to the association.

Derme said his company was completely booked in February. March is already full, and April is close.

"To be completely booked is not common," he said. "I think it's really nice that people are finally taking interest in this."

Most of the company's business is training medical professionals like paramedics and nurses, but it runs classes for between 70 and 100 private clients a year. These classes comprise about 30% of the company's workload.

"We do everything, from as basic as day care centers to fire departments and everything in between," Derme said.

Corporate clients include Ciminelli Real Estate and Moog, according to Derme.

The standard program for laypeople is the American Heart Association's Heartsaver course, which teaches both CPR and AED operation over about three hours.

Derme founded Buffalo CPR 17 years ago. He's seen other high-profile medical incidents spike interest in CPR training. He knows the most recent bump won't last forever, but hopes it encourages a significant number of people to learn.

"In three hours, you can literally learn how to save someone's life," Derme said.

Buffalo CPR has three full-time employees, including Derme. It works with about 17 other instructors on an as-needed basis. They provide on-site training to about 4,000 people per year.

Derme said the company can provide training to any organization with eight or more participants.

"Literally anyone who calls us and wants to get a class done we can come and do a class with them," he said.