Janet Fund Holds CPR Training for Teens

Since the untimely death of his daughter Janet in 2006 due to cardiac arrest, Jim Zilinski has been dedicated to ensuring that as many people as possible are CPR certified and that AEDs are available in every school and public sports field.

Because Janet went into cardiac arrest on the Warren Middle School turf field before a ball game, Zilinski's initial emphasis was to provide training to adults and coaches. In February 2007, Zilinski hosted his first coach CPR training for a group of 101 people in an all-day session and had maintained that approach for three years.

But as awareness of his foundation grew, Zilinski sought to expand training to young people as well. On Thursday at the Courtyard Marriott in Basking Ridge, Janet Fund trainers certified a group of about 40 youngsters in Teen CPR Training for the second time in two months.

"You give a youth an opportunity learn a skill and they will run with it," Zilinski said. "In most cases, they are better at it than the adults. I say let's empower the kids."

At the start of the training, Zilinski told the room of teens that he understood that they were there to make difference. He then told them a story about a 16-year old boy who after becoming certified in CPR noticed a woman on the side of the road in Randolph in cardiac arrest.

"He jumped out and performed CPR until the police arrived," Zilinski said. "The police arrived and continued CPR with him. That woman is alive today because of that boy's actions."

Since starting The Janet Fund, a non-profit organization that has a mission of making an AED available to every school in New Jersey, the fund has trained 1,200 people and donated 80 defibrillators. 

The fund has sponsored state legislation called Janet's Law, which requires public schools, recreational fields and youth camps to have automated external defibrillators for youth athletic events, and public schools and must include pupil training in use thereof and in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation. 

The law would also require schools post signs leading to the AEDs, have an action plan and located AEDs where they need to be and not locked up in a nurse's office.

"In our first roundup of 2,400 schools in New Jersey, only 4.5 percent did not have AEDs," Zilinski said. "And in many cases, the schools have them but they don't deploy them properly and don't have the trained responders they need."

The Janet Law will require five people at the facility trained in AEDs.

"I can't tell you have any messages I get back from parents and kids thanking us saying that they feel so much better that they were certified in CPR," Zilinski added. "They tell me, 'I was scared, now I can act if I need to.'"