Friday, Feb. 24, at 11:30 a.m., the YMCA at Virginia Tech was presented with an AED by the Congress and Shock Foundation that was installed at the Y’s Thrift Shop. The presentation took place in the Y Center at 1,000 North Main St. in Blacksburg.
An AED or automated external defibrillator is a medical device designed to analyze the heart rhythm and deliver an electric shock to victims of ventricular fibrillation to restore the heart rhythm to normal. Ventricular fibrillation is the uncoordinated heart rhythm most often responsible for sudden cardiac arrest, which can happen to anyone at any time during a person’s life.
Approximately 350,000 people are affected outside a controlled, hospital setting each year. The Compress and Shock Foundation’s mission is to bring free and equitable access of CPR and AED education to the local community. The foundation was founded with the vision of establishing an Annual CPR and AED Education Day.
The foundation partnered with the YMCA at Virginia Tech to host the sixth annual CPR and AED Education Day in October 2022 to provide free chest-compression-only CPR and AED education to the Blacksburg and Christiansburg communities using the Y Center facility.
YMCA Student Programs President Shifa Banani coordinated and led the training sessions, which were attended by 57 Y staff and community members between 16-87 years old.