As soon as you see chest compressions, you immediately you know what’s happening and why. The most basic steps of CPR are universally recognized. TV and movies love to thrill us with some (highly dramatized) version in intense, white-knuckle moments and sequel-promising cliffhangers. And outside of media, many people were given some superficial idea of the CPR steps at least in grade school. You’d have to live under a rock to not know CPR when you saw it, and chances are you have an idea about what it’s for and when it’s needed. It’s easily the most recognizable medical procedure to anyone in or out of the medical field.
Yet despite the ubiquity of the process, how many people actually know how to perform CPR properly in an emergency? The statistics, unfortunately, are pretty grim.
The American Heart Association’s CPR Blog informs us that only a small percentage of Americans (30%) would feel confident in their abilities to administer CPR in a cardiac emergency. The rest either do not know CPR or haven’t kept their skills up through recurrent training.
“This alarming statistic could hit close to home, because home is exactly where 88 percent of cardiac arrests occur. Put very simply: The life you save with CPR is mostly likely to be someone you love.”
Many people have taken a CPR class at some time. The American Heart Association’s scientific journal, Circulation, released a study claiming that 61% of subjects studied in a Pennsylvania survey had taken a CPR course at some point in their lives. Unfortunately, only 18% had taken a course within the last two years (the recommended timeframe for re-certification). And of those certified, 76% did so as a requirement of their jobs. That leaves CPR-certified bystanders at a depressingly low count. According to the 2017 Heart Disease and Stroke statistics, only 45% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims (OHCA) received bystander CPR, which nearly double the chances of survival. That means more than half of these victims are left helpless while waiting for EMS to arrive.
We don’t like to believe that we’ll ever be in one of these terrible situations, but 70% of OHCA occur in the home. Imagine the difference between being able to administer confident, life-saving CPR, or standing by helplessly as precious minutes tick by while waiting for emergency services. The sad reality is that the lack of training is likely to be the difference between life and death.
Fortunately, there is hope in a simple solution! The CPR process itself is easy to learn and retain, and with a quality, certified instructor, it can be taught to anyone in a brief three hour class. When 80% of cardiac arrests occur in the home, and the chances of survival nearly doubling when CPR is administered while waiting for emergency services to arrive, three hours of your time seems like a small investment with an enormous payoff.
Go check out our calendar and you’ll have no problem finding a class that works with your schedule. Sign up on your own, or talk to your company about setting up a group class for you and your coworkers. We offer both in house and on site training. Remember, every person trained is a potential life saved, so enroll today and help spread the word!
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