Heart Niagara - CPR Training

CPR - Remember minutes count!

CPR Training can make the difference..

Heart Niagara facilitates CPR training to community, schools, and workplaces and for families. Please call 905-358-5552 for further information.

Cardiovascular disease is currently the leading cause of death among Canadians. The incidence of heart disease continues to rise in Niagara and emphasis is being placed on risk factors and healthier choices. Although the leading strategy in the fight against cardiovascular disease is prevention, there is also a need to be able to provide immediate CPR response to an individual who experiences a heart attack.

Without CPR, a person with a heart attack will have a 1 in 20 chance of survival. If bystander CPR is performed until paramedics arrive, that person's chance of survival will increase to 1 in 4. The payoff is very large.

Rhythmic chest compressions are used to supply oxygen to the brain and other vital organs. This can buy up to 20 minutes of time until advanced life support measures can be administered by NEMS paramedics. In thousands of cases every year, CPR from bystanders is credited as making the difference between life and death.

The sooner CPR is started, the greater the chances for survival. CPR can be used initiated to save victims of drowning, electrocution, suffocation and drug overdose. CPR not only saves lives, but provides peace of mind during and after an emergency.

Bystander Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation teaches how to recognize signs/symptoms of a heart attack, initiate the chain of survival, open the victims airway, perform artificial respiration and perform external blood circulation. These skills can be readily taught by qualified instructors from Niagara Emergency Medical Services and Heart Niagara Inc.

Cardiovascular disease accounts for the deaths of more Canadians than any other disease, claiming the lives of 20 to 30 thousand people annually. Once every one to two minutes, another victim succumbs suddenly to cardiac arrest, often without warning. Almost 80% of all cardiac arrests occur at home and are witnessed by a family member.

Did you know thatmore people can survive a heart attack if emergency responders use CPR chest compressions before a defibrillator shock

Often when people go into cardiac arrest, they develop a type of heart rhythm known as ventricular fibrillation, in which the heart quivers but does not pump blood. If no defibrillator shock is delivered in the first four minutes of this deadly rhythm, the heart stops altogether and it becomes much harder to get it restarted.

The new resuscitation approach calls for a round of 200 chest compressions given in the first two minutes of cardiac arrest, followed by a shock and then another 200 chest compressions. The new approach is called minimally interrupted cardiac resuscitation (MICR), because it is designed to limit interruption of chest compressions to keep blood flowing to the heart and brain.

Bystanders should offer chest compressions and breaths for as long as it takes for emergency workers to arrive.

Who should get annual CPR Certification?