In honor of National CPR Week, the American Heart Association (AHA) is collaborating with the Kern County Emergency Medical Services Agency to coordinate a county- wide CPR program. Emergency healthcare providers, such as fire departments, ambulance companies, hospitals and education programs will be going out into the community to teach residents how to save a life with CPR. This service is free to the public and will be held in various locations across Southern California, including Kern County, with the goal of increasing the number of lifesavers in the community.

SBBCollege Bakersfield will join these efforts and host free Hands-Only CPR training on Thursday, June 7th from 10:30-12:30.

SBBCollege 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. Information on how to get started in the medical field – including a career in medical assisting, nursing or the medical office – will also be available.

Cardiac arrests are more common than you think, and they 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 bystander. 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.

Anyone can learn CPR – and the American Heart Association believes that everyone should. 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.

By using Hands-Only CPR, bystanders can still act to improve the odds of survival, whether they are trained in conventional CPR or not.