Hundreds of students and Gainesville residents CPR certified

Clay Gibbons is training students and residents to try to save lives.

The owner of GatorCPR said he certified a woman who saw a hit-and-run a week after her training. She performed CPR on the victim so she could go to the hospital. The parents said they were grateful the victim didn’t die on the street. 

Gibbons partnered with Gatorsavers, a UF student organization that increases CPR training on campus, for two sessions Saturday for people to get CPR certified or renew their certification for $5. Three-hundred eighty people attended the event.

GatorCPR is an organization that trains and certifies people in CPR, first aid, basic life support and advanced cardiovascular life support. 

Gibbons said the goal of this event is to bring awareness and educate people who have never been trained. The usual cost for training is about $45, he said. 

“Hearing stories about the impact people have had by taking action has made a difference in how I teach,” Gibbons said. “I don’t cut corners and make sure people leave confident with their skills.”

Both sessions were open to the public, and those who attended a session will be certified for two years, Gibbons said. 

CPR is an acronym for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and nearly 45 percent of national out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims are saved because bystanders knew how to do CPR, according to 2014 data from the American Heart Association.

Erika Jensen, 22, has volunteered as an instructor for two years. The UF chemical engineering senior said she wants people to be prepared when someone’s life is at risk. 

“It’s a stepping stone, something that everyone should know and be conscious of,” she said.

Khaai Nguyen, a 21-year-old UF biology senior, said this event was her first time in CPR training, and the low cost for certification was a big factor regarding why she went.

“Now I realize how important it is to take initiative when someone’s life is on the line,” Nguyen said.

Gatorsavers and GatorCPR paid about $1,800 for the event, and the revenues from it will fund an AED machine to be donated to a non-profit organization, which is still being decided on. An AED, which stands for automated external defibrillator, is a machine that detects irregular heart rhythms.  

GatorCPR has been involved with this event since 2012 and has certified 4,500 people since then. It will have the next CPR certification training next January. 

“If I can put another person out there in the community who knows CPR, we will hopefully have more success stories of people doing something rather than nothing,” Gibbons said.

Colleen Maloney, an 18-year-old UF nursing freshman, performs CPR on a mannequin. She said she came for practice and because the training cost only $5.