Why Learn CPR?

When I took my first CPR course 24 years ago, I remember being so excited to go out and save lives! I was 15 and had recently signed up to help on my local volunteer ambulance. The CPR course was part of an introduction that got me ready to observe with a more experienced team of EMTs and decide if I wanted to pursue an EMT class.

               Spoiler alert: I did take that EMT class, and then more education, and I worked on ambulances for 15 years before transitioning to an educational role. In those 15 years, I had countless opportunities to perform CPR and unfortunately, by the time the ambulance actually arrived, it was too late for that CPR to be effective.

               The reality is that the average ambulance response time is somewhere around nine minutes nationwide. Those nine minutes are an eternity when your heart isn’t beating, and you aren’t getting any oxygen to your brain. In fact, the first three minutes are when you are most “save-able.” Most accepted CPR programs agree that survival drops 10% for every minute someone is in cardiac arrest. Ambulances and those who work on them are great, but they can’t teleport, and they can’t anticipate where the next call is going to be.

               That leaves us; the bystanders, friends, family, and community members, as the most likely to witness these sudden illnesses occur and many people’s best hope at making a recovery. The more people who know CPR and how to use an AED, the more likely it is that when an emergency happens, prepared first aid providers will be able to help. Quite simply, community CPR training saves lives. Having more trained people out in our communities is the reason why cardiac survival rates keep climbing. Anyone can learn CPR and that is the first step to being the difference in someone’s survival.

               My goal in teaching CPR is to make sure the training is understandable, thorough and real life accurate. I use my years of experience, having trained hundreds of students in CPR, to make sure everyone who leaves one of my classes is more prepared than when they walked in to help others in an emergency. I always encourage a relaxed, no pressure atmosphere. Whether the class is in person or online, I always want my students to leave saying, “That was the best CPR class I ever took.” If you are interested in getting certified or renewing your certification, check out my upcoming live and virtual classes or feel free to contact me to make arrangements for a private class.