February 14, 2020 | Combined Reports - UConn Communications

UConn Fire Dept Launches Video Campaign to Promote Life-Saving Awareness

New videos produced by the UConn Fire Department offer instruction on the use of life-saving kits throughout each UConn campus.

In a still from a training video, students discover an unconscious man sitting on the floor.

New videos offer instructions that could make a critical difference in an emergency medical situation.

The University of Connecticut Fire Department has teamed up with the student organization UConn Rescue, and alumni-owned social and digital media company Social Motion, to help create a “UConn Nation of First Responders” through instructional videos featuring the university-wide public access AED (automatic external defibrillator) program. The videos, which can be viewed on the website of the UConn Fire Department, demonstrate how to use the AEDs in an easy to follow, step-by-step method, featuring UConn students, staff, and faculty in action. As each AED location also contains a “Stop the Bleed” kit, the videos also demonstrate how to manage an uncontrolled bleeding emergency using the materials provided.

“Over 300 AEDs and ‘Stop the Bleed’ kits have been placed in common areas of buildings and facilities at all of our campus locations, as part of the ‘HEARTSafe Campus’ initiative launched last year,” says Fire Chief William Perez.

The University of Connecticut is the first institution of higher education in Connecticut to achieve designation as a HEARTSafe Campus, meeting standards set by the Connecticut Department of Public Health and its Office of Emergency Medical Services in collaboration with the American Heart Association, which evaluate an institution’s ability to improve the chances for individuals to survive a sudden cardiac arrest.

“Research proves the importance of the location of these devices being easily accessible by our community,” Deputy Fire Chief Chris Renshaw points out. “Survival of cardiac arrest events nearly doubles with bystander AED access and CPR.”

For information on in-person training for both AED and the “Stop the Bleed” campaign, please visit the University Public Access AEDs section of the Fire Department’s website, or contact the UConn Rescue student group.

“Please join us in our mission to save lives. It is our hope that (these videos) become a force multiplier for immediate life-saving measures within our community” Chief Perez says.