Why CPR Training is Important

Kyle Gaines (Director of Community Relations/St. Charles County Ambulance District)

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Host: Welcome once again to Ask the Expert. Thanks so much for joining us and a timely topic today of great importance. We're pleased to be joined by Kyle Gaines, the director of community relations for the St. Charles County Ambulance District. He's overseeing public safety programs and often does things just like this... speaking to members of the public and the community about educational opportunities and initiatives. Kyle, first of all good morning how are you? 

Kyle Gaines: I'm doing great, how are you doing today?

Host: I'm doing wonderful. Thanks for much for taking the time to join us and it's an important topic this time of year and it's certainly been in the news of late, talk a little bit about the importance of CPR training.

Kyle Gaines: Well, I mean gosh, that is kind of a question that's got answers that could go in a multitude of different directions but I guess at its core, why it's important to be trained in CPR.. the very simple answer is that you could be difference between life and death for someone and that someone may be a friend, a relative or a complete stranger or you in your hands have the opportunity to be that person's pump until trained rescuers from St. Charles County Ambulance District or if you're outside of our community, from another agency are able to get there to perform more advanced life support measures. That's why it's so important. We need you to jump in and perform those chest compressions until we get there.

Host: Kyle Gaines with us today, the director of community relations for the St. Charles County Ambulance District on Ask the Expert. Quick question: If I took a CPR class years before and many people did, do I need to take it again? What's changed?

Kyle Gaines: Well, a lot of people have taken CPR classes over the years. Some took it back when they were in high school. Some took it as a community training. People have taken it.. sometimes it was just a couple of years ago and sometimes it was dozens of years ago. What we find is that there is a lot of.. there's a wide array of information that people have out there as far as number of compressions to number of ventilations.. things like that. If you are in a profession that requires CPR certification.. then some of those are very obvious professions like paramedics, nurses, doctors, things like that. They require that you have a certification card in CPR. Some less obvious professions require that also. Massage therapists, acupuncturists, professions like that actually do require a CPR certification... so those folks would need to take a formal American Heart Association class. But, for the vast majority of the public, a simple 30-minute training would probably be more than enough to prepare you to act in an emergency situation. The big that we are preaching.. and going along with American Heart Association guidelines.. for lay rescuers is that the general public just needs to remember hands-only CPR. A lot of people are very nervous to get engaged in a sudden cardiac arrest situation by performing CPR because they think they have to perform ventilations on that patient. That's just simply not the case anymore. For lay rescuers, all you need to do is remember three things: Check -- Which means you are checking for normal breathing, purposeful movement, if you don't see any of that you're going to call 911. Then, finally, you will compress on the chest at a rate of 100 to 120 compressions per minute until trained help arrives. Just really remembering if you're a lay rescuer.. just remembering the three C's. Check, call, compress.

Host: And what about age brackets.. I mean does someone need to be to actually give CPR to someone?

Kyle Gaines: There's really not a magic age that would dictate, "Yes, this person is ready to give CPR." I would assert that it is probably more a facet of upper body strength and ability to perform those chest compressions because again, like I said, you're going to compress between two and two and a half inches on the chest on an adult when you're doing this and to do that for.. to sustain that compression rate of 100-120 per minute for any length of time that's going to require some strength to be able to do that and I'm not thinking that you know, a six, seven, eight year old is going to have that kind of strength to be able to do that. Now, however, they might not be able to actively perform the compressions if an emergency were to occur but we certainly encourage younger kids to come with their parents, grandparents, whomever to come to our lifesaver CPR training sessions because even if they can't.. wouldn't be able to perform 3, 4, 5 minutes of chest compressions in an actual emergency situation.. we feel like they're still gaining valuable information just being there watching and listening.. even giving it a shot on the mannequin because they may be able to give directions to an adult who hasn't had any training in recent years.

Host: I got ya.. on the other side of that what about someone younger... can they receive CPR. Where's the cutoff in terms of age along those lines?

Kyle Gaines: There is absolutely no cutoff in age in terms of how young someone can be to receive CPR. CPR can be for.. be performed on children and on infants. Now, we talk a lot about hands-only CPR. That is acceptable for adult victims of sudden cardiac arrest. Now, children and infants.. there would still need to be compressions paired with ventilations. We do that at a rate of 30 compressions to 2 ventilations. If that's something that you're interested in.. learning more about CPR specifically for children and infants.. if someone were to attend one of our CPR training sessions they can just talk to one of our paramedics. They're volunteering their time to.. and say.. hey I've got kids. I've got grandkids. I would like to know a little bit more about specifically how to do this. Because it does differ a little bit from that hands-only CPR that we talk about for adults.

Host: So, Kyle, give us an example. How does it help for someone in the house, for example, to know CPR when the paramedics are on the way. 

Kyle Gaines: Well, like I said, what you're doing whenever you perform CPR is you're acting as that patient's pump. You're moving the blood throughout the body and keeping the brain and the heart perfused. Perfused is just our fancy word for supplied with oxygen-rich blood until trained responders get there. The statistics show that a vast majority.. I believe it's somewhere in the ballpark of 3/4 sudden cardiac arrests... happen while the victim is at home. So, the life you save by performing CPR may very well be a parent, a spouse, a child. You never know who you might save so it is incredibly important to know these basic steps and be prepared to act in event that this does occur. Hopefully, it's one of those bits of knowledge that you never have to employ but it is sure helpful in the event that you do need it. As far as the ambulance response goes, another reason this is important to know CPR is that under the best of circumstances you're probably looking at a between 5-7 minute response time from one of our ambulances here at St. Charles County Ambulance District. By the time you place that 911 call the dispatcher tones out the paramedics.. they get in the truck and head to your house. Again, five to seven minutes is a pretty good response time in a situation like that. In a sudden cardiac arrest situation, brain death can begin to occur in as little as four minutes. So, you can see why it is so important that someone act as that patient's pump and keep that brain supplied with oxygen-rich blood until we get there. Because again, if that brain death does begin to occur after four minutes they're behind the eight ball if we're looking at a five to seven minute response time... if nothing's done until we get there.

Host: A great point Kyle. And again a reminder, the St. Charles County Ambulance District works with Barnes-Jewish St. Peters and Progress West Hospitals to provide the community with important health and wellness events and you can find out more by simply calling them at 636.928.WELL. Kyle, have a great rest of the week and a great summer coming up my friend. Thank you so much.

Kyle Gaines: Thank you very much -  appreciate the opportunity.