Auto Dealer Donates CPR Training Mannequin

(L to R) Garden City Police Officer Kevin Reilly, Sergeant Bill Petito, Sen. Kemp Hannon, Mayor Peter Bee, Auto Dealer Paul Conte, Police Commissioner Ernest Cippullo, Inspector Kenneth Jackson and Bill Cordes, GNYADA Field Representative

The citizens of Garden City, will be able to breath a little easier now thanks to a cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)-training mannequin donated to the Garden City Police Department on behalf of Paul Conte, the owner of Paul Conte Auto Group in Garden City, New York and the National Automobile Dealers Charitable Foundation (NADCF). Conte is also a director of the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association (GNYADA). New York State Senator Kemp Hannon (6th Senate District), Garden City Mayor Peter Bee and Garden City Police Commissioner Ernest Cipullo joined Paul Conte and the representa-tives from GNYADA.

With the new training mannequin, the Police Department will be able to provide life-saving emergency CPR training to thousands of individuals. Since its inception in 1975, the NADCF fund has given over 4,100 training units in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. for a total donation of over $2.3 million in grants. More than 1.9 million people have been trained on Foundation-donated CPR manikins, and countless lives have been saved.

"If the right kind of treatment can be given to a heart attack victim within seconds after he or she is stricken, the chances are good that the life can be saved," said Conte. "CPR training teaches a person how to keep the heart beating during critical moments while professional help is on the way," he added.

The CPR-training mannequin, "Resusci Anne," gives signals telling when the trainee is applying the right pressure in the right spot or breathing correctly into the victim's mouth. With the training, the students learn the "feel" of giving quick, lifesaving emergency treatment. Nearly 250,000 people in the U.S. die of sudden car-diac arrest each year. Only about 5% of victims survive because the there is only a five to 10 minute resuscitation window for CPR or electronic defibrillation to be delivered before death.