March 2006

More than 400 people attended “Keep the Beat for the Bayou Region,” cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) sessions held on March 4 and 11.

“Keep the Beat for the Bayou Region” is a not-for-profit training initiative formed to teach the residents of the bayou region parishes of Terrebonne, Lafourche, Assumption and St. Mary, basic life-saving techniques. Participants are not certified to work in medical settings, but are taught life-saving skills to use in an emergency situation.

Thanks to the generous support of the community, “Keep the Beat for the Bayou Region” has enjoyed continued success since its start in 2003. In an attempt to broaden its reach, this year’s event brought the educational sessions to the individual communities of Thibodaux, Houma and Morgan City for the first time. In the past, “Keep the Beat for the Bayou Region” has been held on a single day in Houma.

“We truly achieved our mission with the 2006 bystander CPR training effort,” commented Dr. Sandeep Patel, medical director of the Thibodaux event. “We made the training accessible to more people in their own home towns.”

Nearly 70 community-minded organizations from the four-parish area of Terrebonne, Lafourche, Assumption and St. Mary, co-sponsored the event, which was also made possible by volunteer instructors and staff.

“Keep the Beat” has expanded into Iberia and St. Landry Parishes and stemmed from an effort to remedy the dismal statistics that plague south Louisiana: Only one in 20 people know CPR, and Louisiana’s heart disease rate is 10 percent higher than the national average.

This event was made possible with the help of the following sponsors: American Heart Association, Cardiovascular Institute of the South, HTV 10, Sunburst Media—Louisiana, Terrebonne General Medical Center, Thibodaux Regional Medical Center, Charter Media, Lovecomm, Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government, Acadian Ambulance, Abbott Laboratories, All Print Unlimited, All-Right Installations, Atchafalaya OB/Gyn, Bayou Catholic, Bayou Sign, Candy Fleet, City of Morgan City, Coastal Broadcasting of Larose (KLRZ), The Courier, Cristiano Ristorante, CV Therapeutics, Daily Comet, Daily Review, Elwood Stevens, Attorney-at-Law, Guidant, Hibernia Investment, Houma.com, Houma Reprographics & Map, KWBJ-TV Allen’s Cable, Major Equipment & Remediation, The Medicine Shop, Outback Steakhouse, Outside & In, Pinnacle Computer Services, St. Mary Parish Medical Society, Swiftships Shipbuilder, LLC, Teche Regional Medical Center, Taco Bell-Atchafalaya Health Club, Terrebonne Homecare and Tri-Parish Times.