Heart Work : Ex-Teen Idol Bobby Sherman Crusades for Better First Aid

As a teeny-bopper idol, he made hearts throb. As a middle-aged father, Bobby Sherman is content just to make hearts beat.

The former rock ‘n’ roll star famous for his “bubble gum music” of the late ‘60s now sings the praises of cardiopulmonary resuscitation--the emergency procedure that can restore pulse and breathe life back into accident victims.

He organized a volunteer paramedic squad that works at special events throughout Southern California. Then he began teaching first aid to recruits at the Los Angeles Police Academy.

Next month Sherman plans to begin putting specialized first aid kits in every police car in the city if officials will let him.

Sherman’s free kits will be designed to encourage officers to treat wounds without worrying about AIDS, hepatitis B or other communicable diseases that rescuers face on the streets of Los Angeles.

They will contain gloves for officers to use while bandaging bloody stabbing and gunshot victims. They will have safety face masks to protect officers giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

None of the city’s 6,000 police cars are currently equipped with first aid kits.

Patrol cars are supplied with “AIDS kits,” however. They include gloves, shoe coverings and disinfectant for use at crime scenes. They also include resuscitation masks, although statistics are not kept on their use, according to Sgt. Joe Cruz of the LAPD’s Office of Administrative Services.

Police are generally first at the scene of assaults. But officers use their own judgment about trying to administer medical aid to shooting or stabbing victims before paramedics arrive, said Lt. Dan Koenig, a police operations administrator.

“Without question, this first aid kit has the ability to save lives,” said Sgt. Bob Kellar, who heads reserve officer training at the Police Academy. “It is clearly a good idea.”

Kellar plans to ask department leaders next week to accept Sherman’s offer. He said officers could check out a kit at the start of each patrol shift--at the same time they check out shotguns, walkie-talkies and other specialized gear.

It was Kellar who signed up Sherman last year to teach first aid to recruits for the department’s reserve officer corps.

Police say they were surprised by Sherman’s interest--and expertise--in first aid.

The singer is best remembered as the boyish performer who shot to stardom after appearing on the “Shindig” and “Here Come the Brides” television series.

His first single, “Little Woman,” earned a gold record in 1969. Subsequent hits that included “Easy Come, Easy Go,” “Julie, Do Ya Love Me” and “Cried Like a Baby” made him a favorite with pre-pubescent girls.

“The name clicked,” said Officer Butch Rager, a 20-year LAPD veteran. “My sister was a big fan of his. I wondered if it was the Bobby Sherman. It was.”

For his part, the singer was surprised to learn that police get first aid training, but are not issued first aid kits.

“I always assumed police cars carried them,” said Sherman, 48, of Encino.

He said his interest in first aid was stimulated by a Red Cross class he took 15 years ago when his two sons were children. “I had an incredible fear of Christopher and Tyler falling off their bikes or out of a tree,” he said.

It turned out that Sherman never had to use his life-saving skills on his sons, now 20 and 19. But he remembers “the incredible rush” he experienced the first time he stopped at a crash scene and was able to help injured motorists.

Sherman estimates he has treated about 100 accident victims over the years, including three or four who might have died without his help.

In 1984, he started TAC 5, an independent paramedic squad for technicians “between jobs who want to keep up their skills.”

The do-it-yourself rescue team initially cruised San Fernando Valley freeways looking for accidents to offer help. Later, the group began providing free service for such events as marathons and off-road races. The group’s work last year at a relay race for police officers, the annual Baker-to-Vegas Run, led to Sherman’s invitation to teach at the Police Academy.

Fred Miller, a Los Angeles Fire Department paramedic who works with Sherman, said the police first aid kits are overdue.

“A lot of people die because no CPR is done,” Miller said. “You’re reluctant to do it with all the diseases out there. Officers think twice--three, four and five times, in fact--about jumping in.”

Sherman said he hopes to use medical supply house donations to fill the $25 kits. What he can’t obtain as donations he will buy with his own money, he said.

Sherman, whose “Greatest Hits” CD still sells, said he has resumed recording and is working on a television comedy pilot. In his spare time he rides along on rescue calls with Fire Department paramedics.

His fans haven’t forgotten him, he said.

“On one call in Northridge we were working on a hemorrhaging woman who had passed out,” Sherman recalled. “Her husband kept staring at me. Finally he said, ‘Look, honey, it’s Bobby Sherman!’ ”

The woman came to with a start. “She said, ‘Oh great, I must look a mess!’ I told her not to worry, she looked fine.”

Before paramedics carried her to the ambulance, Sherman signed an autograph for her.