Dave Cosmo is a businessman, but his goal isn”™t to make money: it”™s to save lives.
“My goal as a security and life safety educator is to teach as many people as I can how to save other people”™s lives,” Cosmo, aka CPR Dave, said. “I train everyone from corporations to hospitals to schools.”
Cosmo often travels to clients”™ locations to teach CPR, but he also has training centers in White Plains, in Mount Kisco at Northern Westchester Hospital and in Danbury, Conn., which he uses to teach people life-saving skills.
Corporate clients include Bloomingdale”™s, Pepsi and Donna Karan.
The price used to be $75 for the two-and-a-half-hour course, but Cosmo reduced it in response to the economic climate.
Now, the average cost for CPR certification is $60 “and that can be for the layperson or the professional, because there are two levels of certifications.”
Because CPR certification is mandatory for health care providers, “if you don”™t have your CPR certification they will actually take you off the floor of a hospital.”
Cosmo is used to the frantic Friday night calls from health care workers whose certification has expired and they need it to be able to go to work on Monday.
Those looking for jobs can add CPR certification to their resume, “and that especially goes for nannies and au pairs,” he said.
“CPR has become easier to learn, and because we have a phenomenal EMS system, we have more access to the machines that shock the heart,” Cosmo said. “In the last month, I have known at least three individuals who technically should have been dead. Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are basically everywhere; they”™re so commonplace now that even many corporations actually have them in place.”
In addition to being a CPR instructor certified by the American Heart Association, Cosmo is a criminal justice security trainer for the state.
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“I do everything from security assessments for corporations and private citizens to trying to educate people correctly in how to de-escalate violent situations,” Cosmo said. “In the security field, we are always analyzing new intelligence related to the crimes that are taking place.”
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Crime, especially burglaries, increased as the recession deepened.
“We have noticed a significant amount of more robberies, especially with prescription drugs,” Cosmo said. “As more people lose their health insurance, more people become desperate. People who break into homes are looking for prescription drugs because they can sell painkillers like Vicodin or Percocet for $30 a pill. They are also going for guns, ammo and jewelry. No one is interested in flat screen TVs or things of that nature; they can liquidate the other items very quickly.”
Cosmo”™s website is HYPERLINK “http://www.cprdave.com” www.cprdave.com.
