Compiled by Janice Kleinschmidt

Life Savers

A student at Pepperdine University — the grandson of a Weil Institute for Critical Care Medicine board member — used information he had been given several days earlier when a woman seated next to him at a
lecture collapsed. While visiting the desert, the young man had taken the institute’s CPR course and ended up saving the woman’s life.

The Weil Institute has led the way in the nation with critical care instruction, having educated more than 4,000 individuals since moving into its new Rancho Mirage headquarters in March 2005. While CPR training was always available at the institute (previously in Palm Springs), it now offers adults 18 and older CPR kits that contain a training video (in English and Spanish versions) approved by the American Heart Association.

The institute receives support for its research education and community service programs from the American Heart Association and the Desert Healthcare District, which awarded the institute a two-year, $565,000 grant to increase the save rate for cardiac arrest victims in the Coachella Valley. This grant, combined with a three-year grant from the City of Rancho Mirage for $45,000 and additional funds from Riverside County, Indian Wells, and
private donations will help achieve the goal of training 10 percent of the district’s adult population in CPR and automated external defibrillators.

The instruction and distribution of the CPR kits takes place every Tuesday morning at the institute, and four-hour CPR instruction for certification is available on Thursdays. In addition, these programs are taken to schools, senior centers, and major public centers throughout the valley. The institute’s commitment is to save more lives by pre-paring first responders, both family members and bystanders.