Second-year Paramedic students Dustin Petherick and Ryan Chomiszak recently won the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation’s You Can Save a Life Video Awareness Contest for their video titled 911 Emergency ROCKsponse.

Ryan Chomiszak and Dustin Petherick, both Paramedic students known for using humour to educate individuals about cardiac arrest, recently had their efforts recognized in a big way when they won the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation’s (SCAF), You Can Save a Life Video Awareness Contest for their video titled 911 Emergency ROCKsponse.

The contest was designed to help raise awareness about the sudden impact of cardiac arrest and the importance of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillators (AEDs).

Chomiszak and Petherick originally prepared their video about cardiac arrest protocols to showcase at their year-end school banquet but the amazing response to the video pushed it well beyond their classmates onto YouTube, one of the most popular video sites around.

“Everyone at the banquet asked to see it again, so we posted it for people’s enjoyment,” said Chomiszak who felt his program needed a study guide to highlight the real life procedures students learn to follow in certain medical situations.

He originally thought of creating a five or six-song rap album covering all protocols but after much contemplation decided there wasn’t enough time to create an album, but there was time to put together a song. It was then that Chomiszak decided to ask Petherick to help him begin the video-making process.

Once it was posted to YouTube, the ROCKsponse video received approximately 1,500 hits from all over the globe within the first week. Online recognition has grown by the minute and the video has now received more than 42,000 views. “The video was released during EMS week, which also sparked a lot of hits,” added Chomiszak.

After seeing the well-perceived response, he decided to enter the You Can Save a Life Video Awareness Contest on a whim and ended up earning the top spot overall. While the procedures in the video are very real and serious, Chomiszak wanted to have some fun so people would enjoy watching while learning.

Ralph Hofmann, a faculty member with the college’s School of Justice & Emergency Services, was extremely happy with the students’ win. “We are very proud of Ryan and Dustin and the originality they showed in summing up what they learned in their two years at Durham,” he said. “That they associated themselves with an important organization like SCAF will allow their work to contribute to the well-being of a great many others.”

The foundation awarded Chomiszak with an AED, three CPR Anytime kits and a Nintendo Wii gaming system. The AED will be located in the new Student Services building, which is expected to be completed by December 2010.