Here's How to Learn CPR, Save a Life

Lee Health

Posted: February 7th, 2023

CPR photo

Do you know what to do when a person stops breathing, or their heart stops beating? It’s a terrifying moment, to be sure, one that can happen at any time and without warning.

Unless someone has the proper knowledge in giving immediate medical attention or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, also called CPR, a life could be lost.

Brain death occurs between four and six minutes after the heart stops. CPR helps keep oxygenated blood flowing to the brain and other vital organs until normal heart rhythm is restored. The profound impact of CPR recently came back into the news when Buffalo Bills trainer Denny Kellington revived Damar Hamlin after an on-field cardiac arrest.

Jamie Hoover is a personal health advocate with Lee Health Coconut Point and an American Heart Association (AHA) first aid and CPR instructor. She shares some insight on CPR and why everyone should know this life-saving procedure as part of his or her emergency training.

Q: What is CPR?

A: CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, an emergency lifesaving procedure performed on a person if their breathing or heart stops. CPR uses chest compressions to mimic how the heart pumps to keep blood flowing mainly to the brain until trained medical staff can restore a typical heart rhythm.

Q: Why is knowing CPR important?

A: Immediate CPR can double or triple the chances of survival after cardiac arrest.

Q: When do I know when someone needs CPR?

A: CPR is recommended in infants, children, and adults who are unresponsive with no breathing or abnormal breathing.

Q: Do I need to be certified to know how to administer CPR?

A: No, you don’t need to be certified to know how to administer CPR.

Q: Does Lee Health offer free CPR classes to the community?

A: The Healthy Life Center offers a “Friends & Family” class at no charge. The hands-only CPR class teaches life-saving skills, including how to use an AED, and is for people who want to learn CPR but don’t need a CPR course completion card to meet a job requirement. This course is ideal for community groups, new parents, grandparents, babysitters and others interested in learning how to save a life.

To find out more, call 239-468-0050.

Q: If I wanted CPR certification, where would I go?

A: Lee County EMS, in cooperation with some of the local fire districts, American Heart Association, local hospitals, and various other healthcare facilities, offer community CPR training and public education classes. For more information, go here.

Q: Can you tell us more about the Heart Health Fair and Education Event coming up this month?

On Friday, Feb. 17, Lee Health is cohosting the Heart Health Fair & Education Event with the American Heart Association.

The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Lee Health Coconut Point’s Healthy Life Center, located at 23450 Via Coconut Point in Estero. Get directions.

The Heart Health Fair includes opportunities to learn more about taking care of your heart from the American Heart Association and our experts at Lee Health! Get your blood pressure checked, learn more about nutrition, sleep and other lifestyle behaviors and their impact on heart health.

The Heart Health Fair will feature hands-only (chest compressions only) CPR demonstrations.

10 to 11 a.m.: Strategies for Success with Heart Failure. The public will learn about heart failure and the steps that patients and caretakers can take to manage the condition as it relates to their physical and emotional health.
10 to 11 a.m.: Outdoor Strength, Balance and Stretch. Participants will learn how to incorporate chair exercises into their daily routines to strengthen the body, improve alignment and expand mobility.
12 to 1 p.m.: Lunch & Learn: Women and Heart Disease with Dr. Joann Journigan. Dr. Journigan, a cardiologist with Lee Health, will discuss risk factors that face heart disease, different types of interventions and their gender risks, and what women can do to protect themselves.
1:15 to 1:30 p.m. & 1:40 to 1:55 p.m.: Outdoor Meditation. This introduction to outdoor meditation classes is open to all members of the community. It will help attendees focus their attention and eliminate stress.
2 to 2:30 p.m.: Cooking Demo: Heart Health. In this cooking demonstration, community members will learn to reduce their risks for heart and vascular disease through heart-healthy recipes.

RSVPs are required to attend the classes, and all classes are free. The Heart Health Fair is open to the public.

To RSVP for classes, please call 239-468-0050 or visit www.LeeHealth.org/events. To learn more about this fun event, call 239-468-0050.

CPR Class at Lee Health Healthy Life Center

Every second counts when someone goes into cardiac arrest. “The heart is not operating correctly, and it is not circulating blood to the lungs and that cycle that the lungs and heart have so intimately to be able to supply oxygenated blood to the brain,” said CPR Instructor Jamie Hoover. “If it goes too long without oxygenated blood, then irreversible brain damage could settle in.”

First you need to check to see if they have a pulse and if they’re breathing. Then call 911. Hoover reminds her students that they…“are there before the first responders, so you are an extension of our community's first response.”

While CPR is simple to learn, “It's just compressions hard and fast in the center of the chest. How that looks, and your capability, and the emotions that are surrounding that situation, that's what complicates the situation.” Hoover teaches a free hands-only CPR class. “In these classes, it is just that we want you to have fun. We want you to be able to approach this very life-threatening situation with some playfulness, because that's when you relax, and you welcome that information, and you retain it.”

While this isn’t a certification class, Hoover said the skills taught, including how to use an AED can absolutely save a life. “Being prepared mentally on how you're going to respond or what if, right? If this, then that. So, putting yourself in situations where you're an advocate, you're acting, you're responding in a prepared way.” To sign up for the free class, call 239-468-0050 or visit leehealth.org/events and search for CPR.

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