Just when you thought you had that infernal — albeit catchy — song out of your head, I'm here to get it stuck up there again, but for a good cause. "Baby Shark" can help your kids learn CPR and this EMT dad proved it when he shared a video of his then-2-year-old demonstrating the lifesaving technique on a test-dummy. If you have to hear that song everywhere anyway, you may as well use it to teach your child a valuable skill, right?
California CPR instructor Chris Pietroforte went viral when he shared a video of his toddler daughter Saige practicing CPR on a test-dummy to the tune of "Baby Shark" on Facebook, as reported by People. He captioned the post, “If this beautiful 2-year-old can learn CPR/AED, what’s stopping you?” The adorable clip shows little Saige giving rescue breaths and chest compressions to the dummy without any assistance from her dad or any other adult.
How does she keep time? Well, "Baby Shark" is playing in the background supplying her with the pacing. In the past, "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees has been the go-to song used by CPR instructors when teaching trainees to perform chest compressions. This is due to the tempo of the song, at least 100 beats per minute, which is the rate recommended by the American Heart Association for chest compressions.
But there's another song that has around the same number of bpm and it's even catchier than "Stayin' Alive."
You guessed it, that song is "Baby Shark." And, as Pietroforte told Inside Edition, “Any song that’s between 100 to 120 bpm, you can do [chest compressions] to.” For children looking to learn CPR, Pietroforte told PopSugar that using a song they know would make it easier to remember the technique for chest compressions.
Along with being seriously adorable, Saige is a big help to her dad. Pietroforte — who worked as a firefighter and an EMT for 19 years before he opened up his own CPR practice, Central Valley CPR. “She actually goes to all my classes when I teach and she demonstrates how to do it,” Pietroforte said, according to Mom.me
Not everyone takes so kindly to her expertise, though. According to Mom.me, Pietroforte said: "So she’s in there and I tell people that if they can’t outdo her, they won’t pass, and that’s actually happened a couple times. I had someone drop out of an EMT class because she outdid him and he was embarrassed and he left because he didn’t wanna be outdone by a 2-year-old."
Along with celebrating Saige's accomplishments, Pietroforte told Inside Edition that he's hoping to spread the news about the importance and the power of CPR training. “My goal is to get as many people out there trained. The more people trained, the better it is out there for society,” he said.
And he's not wrong. CPR Certification HQ reported that over 350,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur in the U.S. every year — and 70 percent of those happen at home. If a bystander gives CPR within the first few minutes, they can increase the chances of survival by two or three times. I don't know about you, but if I were at home in need of CPR and the only one around was my toddler, I'd be just fine with her singing "Baby Shark" and giving me chest compressions until help arrived.
As sweet as the video of Saige doing CPR may be, it is also an important reminder that anyone can learn and perform this lifesaving technique. Like Pietroforte said, “If this beautiful 2 year old can learn CPR/AED, what’s stopping you?”
