For The Tribune
Empowering people to save lives through free cardiopulmonary resuscitation and advanced life support training since 2012, the Disque Foundation reached its initial goal of training 1 million people in January.
The organization had set out to achieve this landmark by the end of 2019 but reached its goal well ahead of schedule, which illustrates the great and continuing need for CPR training.
The Disque Foundation is the only entity that both trains and certifies people completely free of charge.
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The foundation’s Save a Life Initiative is a partnership between the Disque Foundation and National Healthcare Provider Solutions, which provides online medical certification.
The Disque Foundation was founded by Brownstown native Dr. Karl “Fritz” Disque, a board-certified anesthesiologist.
Following a trip to Haiti with a team of physicians after the devastating 2010 earthquake, he became determined to train people in basic life support so they could serve their own communities.
Since that time, Disque Foundation teams have traveled across North America, Africa, Malaysia and the Philippines.
“This day is the culmination of a dream and a lifelong goal, but it is by no means an end,” Disque said. “If anything, I am now even more inspired to reach the next 10 million. I’m just getting started.”
In addition to providing CPR instruction, the Disque Foundation partners with groups across the country and around the world to train health care professionals in pediatric advanced life support and advanced cardiac life support. The Disque Foundation also offers training to the public via free webinars on the foundation’s website.
A key part of the Disque Foundation’s success and mission is training what it calls “super-users.” These highly trained individuals are equipped with advanced skills and go on to train others in their home communities. The super-user model expands the Disque Foundation’s work exponentially.
Alphipany Roque, a Disque Foundation super-user from City of Navotas, Philippines, has used his super-user status to train more than 800 people in his community.
“The CPR training I got from the Disque team is a whole new avenue for helping people here. My new skills have multiplied many times over,” he said.
“We needed to improve our standard of emergency care here,” said Sheila Muchiri, a Disque Foundation super-user and medical officer at Thika Level 5 Hospital in Thika, Kenya. “Thanks to the Disque team’s training, we are now better able to recognize specific emergencies and can administer more effective treatments. Lives have been saved.”
During a cardiac emergency, 70 percent of Americans feel helpless, and close to 90 percent of cardiac arrests happen at home. If a cardiac event happens outside a hospital, the survival rate is below 9 percent, but if a bystander knows CPR, the victim’s chance of survival triples.
These statistics are why the Disque Foundation exists. Committed to living in a world where everyone is empowered to save lives, its next step is empowering 10 million people to save a life by the year 2025. Stay tuned.
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For information about the Disque Foundation, visit disquefoundation.org.
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