The Ventura County Emergency Medical Services Agency is partnering with the American Heart Association to coordinate a county-wide CPR program from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, June 7. This service is free to the public and will be held in various locations across Southern California, with the goal of increasing the number of lifesavers in the community.
(Click here to see attached list for local locations)
Emergency healthcare providers, such as fire departments, ambulance companies, hospitals – Ventura County Medical Center, SantaPaula Hospital, Los Robles Hospital, Community Memorial Hospital and St. John’s Hospital – and education programs will be going out into the community to teach residents how to save a life with “Hands-Only” CPR.
CPR instructors will be on hand to demonstrate the basics and proper techniques of “Hands-Only” CPR, and participants will have the opportunity to practice on mannequins. The training will not result in CPR certification, but information on how you can get certified will be available.
Cardiac arrests are more common than you think, and can happen to anyone at any time. Nearly 300,000 out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrests occur annually and only 32 percent of cardiac arrest victims get CPR from a lay person. Failure to act in a cardiac emergency can lead to unnecessary deaths. In fact, less than eight percent of people who suffer cardiac arrest outside the hospital survive. On the other hand, effective bystander CPR provided immediately after sudden cardiac arrest can double or triple a victim’s chance of survival. In 2011, Ventura County responded to 440 cardiac arrests; only 30 percent had bystander CPR in progress. Of those, only 14 percent went home neurologically intact.
Sadly, 70 percent of Americans may feel helpless to act during a cardiac emergency because they either do not know how to administer CPR or their training has significantly lapsed. This alarming statistic could hit close to home, because home is exactly where 80 percent of cardiac arrests occur. Put very simply: The life you save with CPR is mostly likely to be someone you love.
For more information contact Sheila Murphy at 805-677-5274.