Tom Fiehrer, the dealership’s president, said it’s important to him and his family to give back to the community.
“We’ve been fortunate enough to be in the community for 85 years, and without the support of them, we would not be here today,” said Fiehrer. “It’s extremely important to us to be able to provide, give back to any specific organizations, especially in this type of situation whereby we are talking about life-saving equipment. for everybody in the community.”
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Having the ability to practice on something that is as realistic as possible is important, according to Mark Mignery, EMS coordinator for Hamilton Fire Department.
“Certainly … I can teach somebody to do compressions on a pillow, but it wouldn’t be as functional or give them the amount of realism that they would probably need to feel comfortable doing it on a real live person,” he said
The City of Hamilton Fire Department has been offering CPR programs for more than 20 years. Over that time, hundreds of residents have been trained to provide CPR.
Over the past two years, the department has been offering CPR training to not only its members but to local businesses and civic groups. Area hospitals and healthcare organizations have also sent their members to classes provided by the department.
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The department has two similar training manikins in different sizes but with “significant amount of age on them,” Mignery said.
“They’re starting to see some wear and tear, almost to the point where I hate to take them out in the general public when I do public education classes,” Mignery said. “This (new device) will be put into service when we do some civic organizations, schools, teachers, anything like that.”
The new device also gives feedback, telling if the compressions were deep enough to have had an effect so they can realize how to perform them in real life.
The donation was facilitated by the Greater Cincinnati Automobile Dealers Association, which since 2013 has organized 29 similar efforts to area hospitals, schools, fire department and Red Cross chapters, according to Sam Harrison, spokesman for the association.
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The donation to the Hamilton Fire Department amounted to $2,000 in value, bringing the total amount gifted via area dealerships to community organizations to more than $30,000, Harrison said.
“It’s just a really good way to increase public capacity for the training, so if any incidents do happen in any or stores or anywhere else somebody is on hand to give that training,” he said. “Within the first couple of minutes of a cardiac arrest it’s imperative that they receive CPR and/or AED to increase their chances of survival.”
In this case, Fiehrer, who serves as president of the Greater Cincinnati Automobile Dealers Association, was provided with the opportunity of deciding the recipient of the lifesaving device, Harrison said.
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