Huntington Hospital and Pasadena Fire Department Offer Sidewalk CPR Training

On June 1, Huntington Hospitaland Pasadena Fire Department, hosted a free, Hands-Only Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) training at the Paseo Colorado in Pasadena. In less than five minutes per demonstration, CPR instructors taught the basic and proper techniques of Hands-Only CPR to over 100 people.

The annual Sidewalk CPR pop-up training event was sponsored by the American Heart Association and was Pasadena’s sixth time extending their efforts to educate the public. The dedicated Huntington Hospitalstaff and firefighters demonstrated the proper chest compression techniques – done to the beat of the famous song “Stayin’ Alive,” allowing participants to feel the quick rhythm required to effectively treat a victim of cardiac arrest for a minimum of sixty seconds at best.

Cardiac arrests are more common than you think and they can happen to anyone at any time. Nearly 300,000 out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrests occur annually and only 32 percent of cardiac arrest victims get CPR from a bystander. Failure to act in a cardiac emergency can lead to unnecessary deaths. In fact, less than eight percent of people who suffer cardiac arrest outside the hospital survive. On the other hand, effective bystander CPR provided immediately after sudden cardiac arrest can double or triple a victim’s chance of survival.

For more information about Hands-Only CPR, please visit the American Heart Association website at Hands Only CPR.