GREEN BAY, Wis. — Brady Schrauth, an athletic trainer with Bellin Health Sports Medicine at Titletown, knows the importance of having people trained on life saving maneuvers — especially hands-only CPR. 

What You Need To Know

  • After Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest during a game this season, the Green Bay Packers looked for ways to help

  • The Packers are teaming up with Bellin Health to donate AEDs to facilities and organizations in need, and provide training courses for CPR and AED use

  • The Packers are providing $100,000 to buy 80 AEDs
  • A large CPR training will be held at Lambeau Field, and smaller trainings will happen throughout the region in the months to come

“The more people people who know how to do this, the better chance you have at helping someone kind of saving that life," Schrauth said. 

CPR training and knowing how to use an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) came back into the forefront of people’s minds after Buffalo Bills' safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest in the middle of their game against the Cincinnati Bengals during a Monday Night Football game. 

Hamlin had trained professionals there working on him almost immediately. 

That’s not the case when most people go into cardiac arrest. 

Bellin Health said nearly 350,000 cardiac arrests happen outside of hospitals every year. 

So, the more people knowing how to give CPR, the better. 

Schrauth gave Spectrum News 1 a demonstration using a training mannequin.

“When we start, we like to push down about two inches on our mannequin, that’s the correct depth to get the heart kind of pushed and pumped," Schrauth demonstrated. "When we start doing compressions, we want to do nice steady compressions at about a rate of 100 to 120 compressions a minute.”

Training is a big part of a joint effort between Bellin Health and the Green Bay Packers, which was announced Wednesday. 

The Packers are donating $100,000 to buy 80 AEDs and will donate them to schools and recreational sports leagues around Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

“Defibrillators are great," said Mark Murphy, President and CEO of the Green Bay Packers. "What we want to make sure is that they don’t just sit up in a closet and never get used."

Murphy said that’s why the training aspect of this joint effort with Bellin Health is so important — not only for hands-only CPR — but for AEDs as well. 

Schrauth said training for both really isn’t too difficult. 

"The cool thing about AEDs is they talk you through everything you need to know," Schrauth said. "So if you freak out and forget what’s going on, if you turn it on, it will tell you exactly what you’re supposed to do.”

The Packers will be holding a big CPR training class at Lambeau Field, and smaller classes around the region in the coming months — all to give people the tools to potentially help save a life. 

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