U.S. Surgeon General Carmona Addresses Need

April 28, 2005

The U.S. Surgeon General VADM Richard Carmona M.D., M.PH., F.A.C.S. address to the EMS State of Science this February, “Save A Life Foundation, which is part of the President’s Citizen Corps recognizes the importance of teaching kids basic Life Supporting First Aid skills. Bystanders are the first to encounter an emergency, and quite often if a child is hurt the bystander is another child. So we must give him the tools to help his friend”.

This past week Dr. Carmona addressed a meeting of the National Medical Service Corps members in San Francisco, California. In summarizing the meeting, Robert J. Tosatto, RPh, MPH, MBA CDR, USPHS Director of Medical Reserve Corps made an honorable mention by reading a Declaration between MRC and SALF.

Dr. Carmona’s feels a partnership between MRC and SALF will:

Keep MRC volunteers engaged and connected during times of non-emergencies by training SALF programs in local schools SALF curriculums are health related and a natural fit for MRC members to disburse MRC members are perfect advocates to incorporate SALF curriculums into school classrooms
MRC members are perfect advocates to promote local emergency medical service agencies as SALF sites and to share a common site between MRC and SALF in their community MRC members have the ability to advocate a career to schoolchildren in the health care field while in the classroom MRC members need not be concerned with medical liability as SALF volunteers who train students MRC and SALF have a “common mission” agreement MRC and SALF are partners within “Citizen Corps” of which MRC volunteers can train SALF programs as the medical component of CERT and other related community programs.