Why I Started Chicago CPR Academy — And the Moment That Changed Everything

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By Mike | Chicago CPR Academy | chicagocpracademy.com | 312.626.8002

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I didn’t plan to start a CPR training company.

It happened the way most meaningful things happen — gradually, then all at once, after years of seeing something that needed to change and finally deciding to be the person who changed it.

Here’s how I got here.

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It Started in the Water

My first real job was as a lifeguard.

I was a teenager, sitting in a chair above a pool, responsible for the safety of everyone in the water. That job taught me something that has shaped everything I’ve done since: being prepared isn’t optional. When something goes wrong in the water, there is no time to look something up. There is no time to think about whether you remember the steps. You either know what to do — or you don’t.

Fortunately, I learned what to do. And that experience lit something in me that I couldn’t ignore.

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From the Pool to the Streets

After lifeguarding, I pursued my goal of becoming a firefighter/paramedic. Suddenly I wasn’t just watching over swimmers in a controlled environment — I was responding to real emergencies in the real world. Car accidents. Cardiac events. People having the worst moments of their lives, and me showing up with a partner and a bag and the training to help.

EMS work strips away any illusion that emergencies only happen to other people. They happen everywhere. In nice neighborhoods and struggling ones. To young people and old people. To people who were perfectly healthy yesterday.

What I learned as a Firefighter/Paramedic deepened a belief I’ve held ever since: the gap between a good outcome and a tragic one is often just a matter of who happens to be standing nearby — and whether that person knows what to do.

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The Fire Service — Where It Became Personal

Eventually I was hired on the fire department. 

Working in the fire service changed me in ways that are hard to fully articulate. You see things. You respond to calls that stay with you. You develop a bond with your crew built on the shared understanding that when the tones drop, there is no hesitation — everyone knows their role, everyone acts, and the training takes over.

But here is what also happens when you work in the fire service: you start arriving on scenes seconds or minutes after a cardiac arrest has begun — and you see, firsthand, what bystander action or inaction looks like.

You pull up to a house and a family member meets you at the door. They called 911. They waited. They didn’t know what else to do.

Or — and this is the call that stays with you — you pull up and someone is already on the ground doing compressions. A neighbor. A coworker. A stranger who happened to be nearby and happened to know CPR. And the patient has a pulse.

I responded to enough of both kinds of calls to understand something with complete clarity:

Bystander CPR and AED use saves lives. The absence of it costs lives. And the difference between those two outcomes is a two-hour class.

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The Number That Won’t Leave Me Alone

Every year in the United States, approximately 350,000 cardiac arrests occur outside of a hospital. Nearly 70% of them happen at home, in workplaces, in schools, in gyms — in places where trained firefighters and paramedics are not standing by.

Survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest average around 10%. But when a bystander performs CPR immediately, that survival rate can double or even triple.

Let that sink in for a moment.

The difference between a 10% survival rate and a 30% survival rate isn’t a new medication. It isn’t a better ambulance. It’s a person who knows how to put their hands on someone’s chest and push.

That person could be you. That person could be the person sitting two desks away from you right now. That person could be the teacher standing in front of your child’s classroom.

Or that person could not exist — because nobody in that building ever took a two-hour class.

I spent years responding to emergencies as a lifeguard, as an EMT, and as a firefighter. I’ve seen both scenarios play out. And I decided I wasn’t willing to keep showing up after the fact when I could do something about the before.

That’s why I started Chicago CPR Academy.

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What We Do — and Who We Do It For

Chicago CPR Academy provides on-site CPR, AED, and First Aid training for businesses, corporations, schools, daycares, and healthcare organizations throughout Chicago, the North Shore, Cook County, and Lake County. We come to your location — your conference room, your break room, your school gymnasium — with professional equipment, certified instructors, and American Red Cross and American Heart Association and Health and Safety Institute-aligned curriculum.

We also offer scheduled open-enrollment classes at our training center in Northbrook, IL for individuals, healthcare professionals needing BLS recertification, and small groups.

Every class I teach, I think about those two kinds of calls. The ones where someone acted. And the ones where nobody did.

I’m in this business to make the first kind more common.

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What You Can Expect From This Newsletter

This newsletter exists because I believe the more people who understand CPR, AED operation, and basic First Aid, the safer every workplace, school, and community in the Chicago area becomes.

Every two weeks I’ll publish a short, practical article — no filler — covering topics like:

• What OSHA actually requires from Chicago employers regarding CPR and First Aid training
• Illinois DCFS certification requirements for daycares and childcare facilities
• What’s changed in the latest AHA CPR guidelines and what it means for your certification
• Whether your workplace legally needs an AED under Illinois law
• Real stories about bystander CPR saves — because data changes minds, but stories change behavior

Whether you’re an HR manager keeping your team compliant, a school administrator navigating state requirements, a healthcare professional due for BLS recertification, or simply someone who wants to be ready when it matters — this newsletter is for you.

It’s free. It always will be. And if something you read here prompts you to get your team certified, you know where to find us.

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Ready to Get Your Team Certified?

Chicago CPR Academy provides on-site CPR, AED, and First Aid training for businesses, schools, healthcare organizations, and individuals throughout Chicagoland. We bring the training to you — same-day certification, OSHA-compliant, American Red Cross, Health and Safety Institute and AHA-aligned curriculum.

Get a free quote for on-site training:

• Visit: chicagocpracademy.com
• Call or text: 312.626.8002
• Email: info@chicagocpracademy.com

Scheduled classes are also available at our Northbrook, IL training center — visit our website for upcoming dates and online registration.

Because somewhere in Chicago right now, someone is having a cardiac arrest. And the only thing standing between them and a second chance is whether the person standing next to them knows what to do.

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Mike is the founder of Chicago CPR Academy, LLC. He began his career as a lifeguard, earned his Paramedic certification, and serves as a firefighter with the Highland Park Fire Department. His years in emergency services — and the calls that never leave you — are the reason Chicago CPR Academy exists. Mike trains businesses, schools, healthcare organizations, and individuals across Cook County, Lake County, and the greater Chicago North Shore area.

© Chicago CPR Academy, LLC | Northbrook, IL | chicagocpracademy.com

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