A Pulse on San Diego

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This story is from the 2025 issue of Discoveries, a UC San Diego Health Sciences magazine.

REVIVE & SURVIVE San Diego, an innovative initiative launched in February 2024, aims to save lives by equipping 1 million San Diegans with hands-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training. This collaboration between the UC San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science and the County of San Diego Emergency Medical Services fosters a robust, county-wide coalition of lifesaving partners, united in their commitment to enhancing public health and emergency preparedness across the San Diego region.

People may think bystander CPR involves a copious amount of support coupled with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. However, in recent years, CPR training has shifted to a hands-only approach, which is just as effective and involves two simple steps: first, call 911, and second, perform chest compressions on a bare chest at a rate of 100 to 120 beats per minute.

In the first nine months of the initiative, certified trainers from more than 30 partners in the San Diego region taught more than 230,000 San Diegans hands only CPR and organized more than 7,100 training sessions.

In July 2024, 35 sixth-grade scholars and several staff members at The Preuss School received hands-only CPR training from UC San Diego Environment, Health and Safety, UC San Diego Police Department, San Diego Project Heart Beat, and Emergency Medical Services at UC San Diego (EMS at UC San Diego).

Christian Beÿ, MPH, co-creator of EMS at UC San Diego — a student group founded in 2016 to establish a community of first-responders, enhance campus safety and advocate for the creation of on-campus opportunities for student emergency Christian Beÿ, MPH, co-creator of EMS at UC San Diego, demonstrates hands-only CPR.  In an emergency, it can be as effective as mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. medical technicians — serves as the organization’s community advisor and as a CPR instructor. He helped train Preuss School scholars.

“Hosting a hands-only CPR training at The Preuss School was a natural progression for the organization that closely aligned with Revive & Survive San Diego’s initiative to increase training rates among school-aged children,” said Beÿ. “The Preuss School’s mission to serve underrepresented groups also complemented Revive & Survive San Diego’s goal to decrease disparities in CPR rates.”

During the training, students were given an introductory lecture describing hands-only CPR and automated external defibrillator use. Students also familiarized themselves with American Heart Association CPR Anytime® inflatable mannikin kits to facilitate continuous practice of CPR skills and promote training others, including their advisory classroom, their friends and their family.

“Training like this is important for The Preuss School, as our scholars are members of the communities who experience vast health disparities,” said Helen V. Griffith, EdD, superintendent at The Preuss School. “They are among the ethnic groups who experience higher rates of heart disease and other conditions that increase the chance of cardiac arrest. This training has the potential to empower our scholars to become future life savers.”

For more information about Revive & Survive San Diego, including opportunities for CPR training, becoming a community partner and supporting the initiative, visit revivesurvive.ucsd.edu.