Leveraging attention and community relationships to deliver hands-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillator training in Western New York’s historically underserved communities

The on-field cardiac arrest and subsequent recovery of Buffalo Bills’ player Damar Hamlin in January 2023 drew international attention to the importance of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) use. Immediate Bystander CPR is a critical early step in increasing the odds of survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). However, Black and Hispanic persons in the USA with witnessed OHCA are 26% less likely than White individuals to receive bystander CPR at home and 37% less likely in public.1 Women are also less likely to get CPR than men.2 Research confirms that underserved populations are willing to learn CPR but lack informational and financial resources to seek and undergo CPR training.3