Bucs organization opens CPR training to all employees after Damar Hamlin's collapse earlier this year
TAMPA, Fla. - Months after EMTs and Cincinnati Bengals' training staff saved the life of Damar Hamlin, more people are now prepared to respond to an emergency around and outside the Tampa Bay Buccaneers stadium.
The Bucs field training staffers are already trained on CPR, so Wednesday the Bucs teamed up with AdventHealth for a full CPR certification class for anyone within the organization.
"I think the Damar Hamlin incident really opened up everybody’s eyes because it put him in the spotlight. Nobody had a chance to look away. Everybody has the chance to see what an out of hospital cardiac arrest all about," said Alexander Tubonjic, an AdventHealth EMS specialist.
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Almost 30 employees from different departments participated in the training.
That’s when CPR training becomes vital, and the Bucs want to make sure its employees who aren’t on the field are prepared.
"These are our folks in our accounting department, in our human resources department, in our marketing department," said Brian Ford, the chief operating officer for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. "Heart disease affects all of us, if not individually, within our family, within our friends, and you don’t get no warning."
Cardiac arrest can happen anytime and to anyone, from pro-athletes like Hamlin to people watching in the stands. Earlier in June, a Tampa Bay Rays fan suffered cardiac arrest during a game and another fan who happened to be a nurse started chest compressions. So, chest pain experts said it’s important to know the signs.
"The clear-cut chest pain, when people complain of shortness of breath, dizziness, weakness. They can complain of nausea and vomiting," said Damar Camacho, the AdventHealth Chest Pain Center coordinator, discussing the symptoms and signs of cardiac arrest. "Women show different signs and symptoms than men typically. One of those is the complaint of flu like symptoms. I have body aches, I hurt all over. I just feel really under the weather."
CPR training is not only important for Bucs employees who are on the field.
Nearly 30 employees practiced hand CPR for hours, even learning how to use a defibrillator.
"Everybody’s a little, ‘can I do it?’ And we want to get them the experience, so they could respond," said Ford.
So if and when the time comes at a game or in the office, their training kicks in.
"If there’s nothing else that you can remember from that, it’s the fact that by dialing 911, the dispatch person on the other end of the phone will be able to talk you through the other steps that you might have forgotten," said Camacho.
AdventHealth’s CPR trainer said more people are getting interested in learning CPR, and AdventHealth offers community classes at www.adventhealthtrainingcentercfl.com.