ProCPR Blog

Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of people say they would be more likely to perform CPR on someone if they did not need to have mouth-to-mouth contact such as through rescue breaths, according to an American Red Cross survey.

“Hands-Only CPR is an effective lifesaving technique especially for an untrained bystander who witnesses someone suddenly collapse,” said Dr. David Markenson, chair, American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council. “Full CPR is recommended for infants, children and those with respiratory problems.”

The national survey of more than 1,000 adults found that when needed, people are more willing to perform Hands-Only CPR (chest compressions without rescue breaths) than full CPR (series of chest compressions and rescue breaths) on strangers – regardless of age, gender or appearance of the person in need of help.

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In another story that should prove to be a good reason for anyone to learn CPR, a man from Lowell, Michigan recently learned CPR and only eleven days after his class he was forced to use it in a real-life situation – on his son. Logan, 4, was over at a neighbors, and fell out of his tube into the pool. He was underwater for about a minute before being scooped out of the pool by a nearby adult. His father heard a scream and Logan’s name, and that’s all he needed to hear before he sprang into action to save his son.

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A man from Oklahoma has rescued a puppy with CPR.  This is a trend that seems to be growing as more and more people are taking to doing CPR to rescue their pets.

Chester is a twelve week old puppy, and his owner found him under the water in his pool – not moving.  He ran to the pool, got Chester out and began CPR, administering mouth to snout rescue breaths and some chest compressions.  They managed to bring him back, and took him to the vet where he spent a night in the ER.  He came home the next day as good as new.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXIqoT41E5U

ProPetFirstAid.co.uk

I don’t know how a boy as young as nine had seen the film Black Hawk Down, but in any event, it helped him to save the life of his little sister who had fallen into a pool.  The story is simple.  He had watched Black Hawk Down and saw a scene with CPR featured.  He then asked his parents to teach him how to do it, which they did.  When an emergency situation happened, he snapped into action without really thinking about what he was doing, and saved his sister’s life.

Tristan Saghin is the boy, who wants to be a medic when he grows up.  His two-year-old sister Brooke fell into a swimming pool and wasn’t breathing when her mom pulled her out of the water.  Tristan quickly urged their grandmother to call 911 as he went to work on the CPR.

Tristan’s dad, Chris, says Tristan told him, “‘I really didn’t think. I just knew I had to do something.’ ”

“You don’t expect that to ever come to a place where it saves your daughter,” Saghin says. “He feels proud that he did it, and we tell him, ‘We’re real proud of you.’ ” (via)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have released a guide to dealing with a Zombie Apocalypse.  The guide has very practical advice from this very trusted source of information.

So what do you need to do before zombies…or hurricanes or pandemics for example, actually happen? First of all, you should have an emergency kit in your house. This includes things like water, food, and other supplies to get you through the first couple of days before you can locate a zombie-free refugee camp (or in the event of a natural disaster, it will buy you some time until you are able to make your way to an evacuation shelter or utility lines are restored).

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Back in December, Time released their annual list of the top ten medical breakthroughs.  I completely forgot about this list until today, and figured that it was better late than never.

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CPR training for the youth of the country is something that we feel is very important.  In fact, we’re in the midst of the beginning of a project to provide that very service.  When we hear of things like this, it lends a lot of credibility to our own concept.

Sam Rafal, an eighth-grade physical science teacher at Madison County Middle School – and also a licensed EMT – has been teaching CPR to the students in his classes for several years. But this year, he received a grant that allowed him to expand instruction to the entire eighth grade.

“I just know that seconds and minutes count,” said Rafal, who’s seen many cardiac-arrest patients in his 25 years as an EMT. “And I just knew that the more people we could get in the field who knew CPR, the more likely that someone who needed help would have someone close to them who could help.”

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Recently we’ve been hard at work on a new Pet First Aid course for the UK.  There seems to have been an outbreak of dogs getting CPR done on them, and this story is no different.

When firefighter Tammy Rodriguez was greeted by the rambunctious, brown and white pitbull in the Engine 57 station house Friday night, she couldn’t believe her eyes.

“Oh my gosh, are you kidding me?” she said.

Just hours earlier, Rodriguez went to work on the lifeless dog as her colleagues finished putting out the fire in the 1800 block of North Honoree Street.

Firefighter Terry Reilley said the fire “pretty much destroyed” the second and third floors of two buildings.

“And I would imagine water damage probably ruined the first floor of each,” he said.

During her efforts, Rodriguez went through two tanks of oxygen, fed through a mask fitted for animals, and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the animal.

“For a while, there, it wasn’t reacting, but I think just the positive pressure of oxygen made it start breathing, which was exciting.  And then we just kept working her and all of a sudden she just opened her eyes… and then she got up,” recalled Rodriguez.

We’ve recently launched a new program that we’re very proud of and excited about.  We are hopeful that many of you will want to take part in this, and train to become a CPR Skill Evaluator.

The course is blended, so while you can watch the videos and take the test online, we also require some extra training which we can do via webcam.

Becoming a CPR Skill Evaluator will also get you listed on Blended CPR.  That way, people in your area can contact you for a skill evaluation, giving you another source of income.

You can train to evaluate for our CPR, First Aid or First Aid Basic programs.  Learn about each of the Skill Evaluator Training Courses.

You can learn more, or get started today at ProSkillEval.com, and if you’d like to learn more, download the Student Manual PDF all about the program.

We worked pretty hard on the training video library.  We spent time re-filming all of the necessary videos to cover the 2010 CPR guideline updates.  The updates apply to our CPR and First Aid training libraries:

ProCPR Training Videos

ProFirstAid Training Videos

ProFirstAid Basic Training Videos

ProFirstAid Advanced Training Videos

It has been a lot of work, but it’s worth it to make sure you’re all well trained and up to date.

We’ve also uploaded all of the videos to our YouTube Channel.  If you’d like to subscribe to the channel, we do add new videos there from time to time.

We hope that you enjoy the training videos.