American Heart Association relaunches CPR kiosk at Carnegie Science Center

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - The American Heart Association is encouraging everyone to take the challenge of having at least one person in every family or household know how to perform CPR.

Since Friday is National Wear Red Day and American Heart Month, the American Heart Association and FedEx Ground are kicking off this month with the relaunch of their interactive kiosk at the Carnegie Science Center, designed to teach hands-only CPR.

Knowing CPR can help save a life, and if you don't know how to perform CPR, you can learn at the kiosk at the Carnegie Science Center.

In honor of National Wear Red Day and American Heart Month, the American Heart Association has re-installed their hands-only CPR kiosk at the Carnegie Science Center.

The kiosk is interactive and can teach someone hands-only CPR in about 5 minutes.

With the help of a practice rubber torso, the kiosk gives real-time feedback to the person performing CPR and helps with depth and rate of compressions -- big factors that influence the effectiveness of one's CPR. 

And if you are wondering why it's only hands-only, experts say that hands-only CPR is as effective as the conventional mouth-to-mouth CPR and people are more likely to feel comfortable performing it. 

Any way you cut it, knowing CPR can save lives and this is an excellent way to learn or re-learn.

"Ensuring from an early age, whether you are involved in sports or any other activity, that we are trained and ready to help our friends and neighbors and our loved ones," said Matthew Sousa, the executive director of the Pittsburgh American Heart Association. "It is great for children, but it is also when parents are here, while the kids are doing all sorts of other activities, it's a great opportunity for them to get a refresher or for the first time learn CPR."