Heart Association CPR Kits donated to Biloxi Jr. High

A donation that could help save a life was made today at Biloxi Junior High School.

This donation of CPR kits by BancorpSouth was in partnership with the American Heart Association. These kits will give students a valuable life-saving skill plus help them meet the state’s graduation requirement for hands-only CPR training.

The Heart Association has already donated these kits to every high school on the Coast and this is their second junior high.

The students got the chance to test out the mannequins and use the ‘staying alive’ method today. BancorpSouth Market President Bill Briscoe said, “We certainly hope that they don’t have to use them, but having the skills to learn what to do in that situation, if it helps save even one life it is worth it.”

Jessica Bilotta with the American Heart Association said, “We know that if someone goes into cardiac arrest outside of a hospital setting and they do not have CPR that 10 percent are going to die and their chances will go up exponentially when they have exposure to CPR.”

More than 400,000 people suffer out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest each year. The American Heart Association is working to improve this number with these donations.