Within our Walls: National CPR and AED Awareness

The month of June hosts National CPR and AED Awareness week.

Initiated in 2007, this week was formed by a partnership with the American Red Cross, the American Heart Association, and the National Safety Council.

The aim of this awareness week is to stress the importance of learning and mastering the skills of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED) to save lives. These skills provide lifelines to assist individuals in helping anyone that experiences a sudden medical emergency.

Knowing how to perform CPR or how to apply an AED can be the difference between life and death for an individual. Timely response and proper execution of these skills are crucial in saving lives, as it only takes four to six minutes without oxygen for the brain to experience damage. Many people feel they do not need to learn these techniques because they will just call 911. However, waiting for emergency medical service workers to be paged out and respond to a scene takes time. This is precious time an individual experiencing a medical emergency might not have.

Most medical emergencies requiring CPR and/or the use of an AED are from cardiac arrest. A cardiac arrest occurs when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. When this occurs, blood stops flowing to the brain and other vital organs.

According to the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation, 356,000 cardiac arrests happen in the United States every year. Ninety percent of those arrests are fatal, and can take place anywhere at any time. If an AED is applied within the first three minutes of a sudden cardiac arrest, survival rates can increase by over eighty percent. This is why it is so very important for everyone to be able to perform CPR and/or know how to apply an AED.

CHI St. Alexius Health Emergency Medical Services has instructors on staff that are able to teach CPR and the use of an AED. If you would like more information on these skills, or on taking a class to learn these skills, please call 701-652-2374. We are happy to help you learn how to help others!