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Opinion Editorials Learn CPR — you’ll be glad you did
Learn CPR — you’ll be glad you did
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The choking child or adult may be a stranger. The drowning, suffocation or electrocution victim may be a loved one near and dear to your heart. The heart attack victim may be your husband or your minister. In any event, it’s important that more of us learn and know how to practice CPR, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, in the case of an emergency. Giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and rhythmic chest compressions can prevent the heart, brain and lungs from being deprived of oxygen and blood. In early April, two local people showed just how important knowing and being able to practice CPR can be. Gerry Montgomery and Frank Thomas teamed up at the Union County Senior Center to help save the life of Pat Faro, a man who was having heart troubles. Thomas has since taken steps to create the Gerry Montgomery Invitational CPR Course as part of his belief that the more people who know CPR, the better off the community will be. The first American Red Cross-taught class filled up quickly. A second course is being considered. Thomas says the Montgomery Invitational Course could become an annual event. For people such as babysitters and caregivers for the elderly, it is especially important to know CPR and how to use it in an emergency. Sure, most people who learn CPR will never be called upon to use it in an emergency. But learning CPR would be a worthwhile investment and it could save a life. As the population ages, it becomes more prone to sudden cardiac arrest, the leading cause of death in adults. Knowing CPR is valuable to help such people when an emergency arises. Getting prompt CPR doubles a person’s chance of survival. It’s important to be ready to take prompt action if a family member or close friend, or even a complete stranger, goes into sudden cardiac arrest. You can’t always depend on other people for help. Not all cases occur at busy public venues like the senior center, where there might be some trained heroes on hand to save the day. In fact, 75 percent of all cardiac arrests happen in people’s homes. And consider these facts. The typical victim of cardiac arrest is a man in his early 60s and a woman in her late 60s, and cardiac arrest occurs twice as frequently in men compared to women. Heart attack victims have double the chance of survival if they immediately get CPR. But sometimes people are afraid. They think they will not remember how to perform CPR or will mess it up. It’s important at these moments to be brave. As a Los Angeles Fire Department brochure points out, good CPR is better than bad CPR, and bad CPR is a million times better than no CPR at all. Here’s a salute to heroes like Montgomery and Thomas and to the growing number of people in our communities who are learning CPR and not afraid to leap to the rescue when a crisis occurs. |
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