Nonprofit organization founded by Rutgers students provides CPR training, educational services

MedicZero, a nonprofit organization founded by Rutgers students, aims to provide emergency medical service (EMS) education to bystanders including CPR training and stroke recognition techniques. 

Aditya Jain, a School of Arts and Sciences junior and co-president of the organization, said MedicZero’s mission is to teach bystanders how to react in emergency situations such as cardiac arrest. 

The idea behind the organization came from the current co-presidents’ desire to teach CPR in India, where the CPR literacy rate is under 2 percent, Jain said.

“We quickly realized that the CPR literacy rate even in the United States is nowhere close to where it should be and that there are staggering disparities in cardiac arrest survival rates throughout our country,” he said. 

Jain said MedicZero’s current board of directors originally began holding unofficial CPR training sessions in Jersey City and, after observing the demand for EMS education, decided to start the organization. 

He said MedicZero was officially founded during the summer of 2020 and the Rutgers chapter was founded during the fall of the same year. The organization was eventually recognized as a nonprofit in fall 2021. 

Through the organization’s free classes, students learn bystander-initiated chest compressions that are critical for patient survival during cardiac arrest, Jain said. 

“For every 1 minute a cardiac arrest victim goes without CPR, their chance of survival drops by around 10 percent,” he said. “This is a troubling statistic, as the average ambulance response time in the U.S. is between 8 to 10 minutes and only 45 percent of cardiac arrest victims receive CPR prior to EMS arrival.”

In addition to providing CPR training, the organization also instructs individuals in stroke recognition, bleeding control, choking treatment, use of an epinephrine auto-injector and use of naloxone, he said. The classes are typically held in public locations such as parks and churches and are open to any member of the public.

Typical in-person classes use electronic manikins, also known as “CPR dummies,” that provide feedback on chest compression rate and depth. The classes also supply participants with inflatable manikins to take home and educate their families, Jain said. 

Additionally, he said MedicZero makes use of training devices for epinephrine and naloxone administration and tourniquets to practice bleeding control. Jain said that due to ongoing restrictions related to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the organization was largely unable to host in-person classes on Rutgers campuses. 

During the winter of 2020, MedicZero opted to teach CPR classes online by delivering boxes of inflatable manikins to participating high schools and allowed students to practice remotely and receive feedback via Zoom, he said.

Strokes are the leading cause of disability within the U.S. but are rarely detected in time for patients to receive critical medication, Jain said. Therefore, the organization chose to offer virtual stroke recognition classes as well as CPR training. 

“By teaching how to recognize the signs of stroke and the importance of prompt treatment at the hospital, we hope that family members will take initiative to call 911 as soon as they notice their loved one may be having a stroke,” he said.

During the Spring 2021 semester, he said MedicZero was able to teach approximately 300 University students as part of online lectures. The organization has also established another chapter at Seton Hall University, with several other northeast chapters in the works. 

So far, the organization has seen more than 1,100 class participants, and they hope to expand to reach more students in the future, he said. 

Jain said that in the future the organization intends to create a CPR and first-aid curriculum for high school physical education teachers, who can then provide EMS knowledge to hundreds of students each year. If this endeavor is successful, he said cardiac arrest survival rates could drastically improve.

Although hospital treatments and technologies have greatly advanced over the past several decades, Jain said many of them require patients to reach hospitals with their hearts still beating. As such, bystander CPR is incredibly important in maintaining vital functions until patients can receive proper care, he said.

“Bystander first aid/CPR serves an important role in bridging the gap between the patient initially suffering a life-threatening emergency and them receiving definitive medical care at a hospital,” Jain said. “These few minutes can quite literally make all the difference in a patient's outcome and survival.”