At this year’s Stanislaus County Fair visitors can learn cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, in less than 10 minutes, thanks to a partnership between Emanuel Medical Center, the Stanislaus Heart Rescue Project, and American Medical Response.
The partnership will have medical professionals and first-responders at the fair to teach compression-only CPR on July 13, Free Senior Day.
“With compression-only CPR, you only perform chest compressions and don’t breathe into the person’s lungs,” explained Michael Corbin, the clinical education manager at American Medical Response. “For someone who has had sudden cardiac arrest, it’s all you need to do, and we can teach compression-only CPR in 10 minutes.”
Every year, more than 400,000 Americans experience sudden cardiac arrest, and more than 90 percent of them die. The goal of the Heart Rescue Project is to cut the death rate by half.
“Compression-only CPR, which we also call bystander CPR, can save lives,” Corbin said. “As fair-goers will learn at the Emanuel booth, the keys are to recognize that someone has gone into cardiac arrest, call 911 immediately, then perform compression-only CPR. If there is an automated external defibrillator available, use that next, or just keep performing compressions until help arrives.”
Pennie Rorex, Emanuel’s assistant vice president for corporate communications and marketing, said “Everyone who completes the CPR training will receive a gift to acknowledge their accomplishment.”
“Certified CPR instructors will be in the booth all day and night on July 13, so people can just stop by and in 10 minutes they’ll know how to help save a life,” she said. “In addition, visitors can spin the wheel and in doing so, answer a true or false question about heart health. Every spinner wins something as well.”
The Emanuel Medical Center tent will be located on "food row" just a few steps west of the "Imagine the Food" exhibit building.
