American Heart Association and Amerigroup Foundation donate 500 infant CPR training kits to Cooper Health

"The American Heart Association is proud to offer these high-quality instructional tools to help new parents become trained and knowledgeable on how to respond if their baby suffers a cardiac emergency," said Robert Goodman, survivor ambassador, heart transplant recipient and incoming American Heart Association South-Central NJ Regional board member from Westampton, NJ.  "The kits will make it convenient for parents and even others such as caregivers and grandparents who will be with the baby for a prolonged time period to learn life-saving skills."

The Infant CPR Anytime® Kit provides a 22-minute training session that teaches parents the core skills of infant CPR and choking relief. The kit focuses on training for emergencies involving newborns to 12-months and includes an infant CPR mannequin, training DVD and two reference cards. The Association created the kit's contents in coordination with the American Academy of Pediatrics.

"Amerigroup is honored to work with the American Heart Association. This collaboration exemplifies our mission of providing consumers with educational healthcare resources and we are especially pleased to be helping new parents transitioning home from the NICU learn about CPR and choking relief," said John Koehn, Amerigroup New Jersey President. "We remain steadfast in our commitment to supporting community initiatives, such as CPR training, as we strongly believe that education and access to high quality healthcare are the critical components to help consumers improve their health and wellbeing."

More than 7,000 children suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest annually, according to the American Heart Association. While the reported number of infant out-of-hospital cardiac arrests varies widely, survival to hospital discharge averages 6.2 percent for children less than one year old who experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Seventy percent of cardiac arrests (adult and infant) occur at home.

"Children's Regional Hospital at Cooper is pleased to be teaming up with the American Heart Association and Amerigroup to provide this invaluable education to our patients," said Michael Goodman, MD, chief of Pediatrics at Cooper University Health Care. "Every day we provide the highest level of care to help babies and their families get a good start in life following premature birth or with serious health issues. The CPR Anytime kit will further support our ongoing education efforts."

"Nothing can be scarier to a new parent than when their precious little one is in danger," said Assemblywoman Patricia Egan Jones (D-Camden/Gloucester). "I applaud this proactive campaign to ensure that parents are empowered to be first responders to an emergency, so they can take the immediate and necessary steps to save the life of their child."

To learn more about the Hands-Only CPR campaign and learn how to save a life, visit www.heart.org/handsonlycpr or facebook.com/AHACPR.

About the American Heart Association
The American Heart Association is devoted to saving people from heart disease and stroke – the two leading causes of death in the world. We team with millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, fight for stronger public health policies and provide lifesaving tools and information to prevent and treat these diseases. The Dallas-based association is the nation's oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. To learn more or to get involved, call 1-800-AHA-USA1, visit heart.org or call any of our offices around the country. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

About the Amerigroup Foundation
The Amerigroup Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Amerigroup, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anthem, Inc. Together, with local, regional and national organizations, the Amerigroup Foundation works to enhance the health and well-being of individuals and families in communities that Amerigroup and its affiliated health plans serve. Amerigroup Foundation funding is focused on strategic initiatives working to address and provide innovative solutions to health care challenges, as well as promoting the Healthy Generations Program, a multi-generational initiative with five areas of focus: Healthy Heart, Cancer Prevention, Healthy Maternal Practices, Type 2 Diabetes Prevention, and Healthy Active Lifestyle. These disease states and medical conditions include: prenatal care in the first trimester, low birth weight babies, cardiac morbidity rates, long term activities that decrease obesity and increase physical activity, diabetes prevalence in adult populations, adult pneumococcal and influenza vaccinations and smoking cessation. The Foundation also coordinates the company's year-round Associate Giving program which provides a 50 percent match of associates' campaign pledges, as well as its Volunteer Time Off and Dollars for Doers community service programs. To learn more about the Amerigroup Foundation, please visit www.anthem.foundation.

For Public Inquiries: (800) AHA-USA1 (242-8721)
heart.org and strokeassociation.org

SOURCE American Heart Association

Related Links

http://www.heart.org