Bystander CPR course offered Saturday

Hot Springs Health is holding the Thermopolis Bystander CPR Course on June 18 at the hospital with multiple time slots available. The course will be presented by Dr. Megan Olson and was inspired by Emma Dorman’s story and developed to promote CPR in our community.

Dr. Olson said, “The goal of this course is to just teach compressions only CPR. We don’t teach the breathing portion. It’s just compressions. You won’t get an American Heart Association certification, but the compressions-only piece has been shown to be effective at sending oxygen to the brain.”

Dr. Olson added, “It’s a good temporary measure until more trained help arrives, like the ambulance or sheriff’s officer who’s trained in full CPR. This is obviously inspired by the Dorman story. Our goal is to just help the community be more comfortable with providing compressions, how to have them be comfortable with identifying if someone needs CPR.”

Dr. Olson said the class will also discuss the Good Samaritan law, which protects bystanders if they provide CPR or give any medical assistance and answer any questions that people have.

Dr. Olson continued and said, “When there’s a crisis situation and you have a person or a patient that incapacitated in the CPR, obviously the compression, how long do you need to compress before you have to do the breathing? I mean, what’s the difference here? There’s not necessarily a threshold for how long you have to go before you get the breathing. You get a little bit of ventilation from just the compressions themselves. That helps the lungs ventilate a little bit as you push on the chest. So even if you’re 15 minutes out from an ambulance arriving, then the compressions alone are enough.”

Dr. Olson also explained that a person may find themselves in a crisis situation and would benefit from the training. She said, “I would say you never know when someone’s going to need CPR. It could be your friend. It could be a family member. It could be a stranger.”

The training course will be about 45 minutes long. There are multiple sessions. They’re scheduled from the earliest one starts at 9 a.m, next is 10 and 11 a.m. and then after lunch at 1 and 2 p.m. Each class is for 18 participants because of how many mannequins are available.

To sign up or for more information, call Miranda Nelson at 864-5046.