The event was organised by the Dean of the University of Guadalajara and Chief of the CardioLab of CUCS, Mtro. Victor Manuel Ramirez Anguiano, coordinated by Dr. Luis Manuel Espinosa Castillo and supervised by a representative of Guinness World Records, Danny Girton. Invitations to attend the event went far and wide to universities, high schools, the Red Cross, the Police Force and the general public at large.

A long held mission

Speaking of the marathon’s principal aim, Dr. Espinosa explained, “Since 1980, heart disease remains the first cause of death in the world according to the WHO (World Health Organisation). Looking closer to home, according to the INEGI (National Institute of Statistics and Geographical Information), of the 514,420 deaths that occur in Mexico each year, 87,185 are cardiac illness and 56,027 are cardiac arrest.” He continued, “The challenge for us now is to spread the teaching of CPR – ideally train 100% of the population. This is the first step.”

How to train over 6,500 people CPR in just 3 hours

Training the core skills of CPR to just over 6,500 people in a mere 3 hours might seem logistically fraught with complications but the formula was quite straight forward. To achieve training on this scale, 700 medical students and paramedics were trained to be instructors and each instructor was to be allocated 10 CPR trainees using a total of 1,500 MiniAnne / CPR Anytime kits. The participants listened to a stadium-wide explanation and lesson about the core skills of CPR including information on current guidelines, which was then followed up by the 700 instructors to their own smaller groups to reinforce the lesson.

A landmark year!

Closing the event, Danny Girton from Guinness World Records presented a certificate to Mtro. Victor Manuel to mark the new record. In his closing remarks he said that Guinness World Records has documented and certified the most incredible World Records for 50 years, making this particular event especially befitting, as 2010 also marks the Golden Anniversary of Resusci Anne (Mini Anne’s predecessor) and the birth of modern resuscitation.