Heart Compression Resuscitation LLC
A New Standard for "Feel'n Real" CPR Training Manikins
History
In his younger years, Dan May, the Founder of HCR, was a life guard and then a water safety instructor for the American Red Cross. At this time, he was also the director of a local swim program that involved over three (300) hundred students, and which involved teaching CPR to lifeguards in training. Dan felt then that the CPR manikins used for training were not realistic, were a poor training tool, and that, based upon his own personal experience, applying CPR “in the flesh” to a human being had a significantly different “feel” than what his students experienced in class.
Much later in life, Dan attended a corporate sponsored CPR class, which was taught by the local fire department, and noticed that nothing had changed – the same unrealistic manikins were still being used. Feeling the need to fill the gap, Dan proceeded to research the CPR manikin industry and consulted a patent attorney regarding any existing patents. Not finding any, Dan set out to design a manikin that would (1) provide a dramatically improved and more realistic CPR training experience and (2) leave the trainee with much longer lasting “muscle memory” regarding the “real feel” of the life saving process.
In 2009, Dan filed a patent application to protect the idea of a device, which simulates rib cracking and cartilage tearing during CPR training. This led to the first prototype known as HCR Device I, which was beta tested by many EMS personnel, the UA Sarver Heart Center, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and by professional trainers at the local American Heart Association hospital training centers, along with the American Red Cross local trainers. As a result of the feedback received from these tests and further scientific study (regarding the physical dynamics of human chest compression and rebound), the next device, HCR Device II, was designed, built, and again tested by many in the original group of doctors, professional trainers, and life saving personnel. As a result of receiving very positive feedback from this testing, the HCR Device II mechanism was selected to become the core of HCR’s first life saving training manikin.
The name of the first HCR manikin has been trademarked as “Chest Compression Charlie”TM , and is known informally as “Charlie”.
