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Thursday, July 21, 2011

I need your help, please.

Yesterday I heard it again: "I'm not going to take a CPR class, because I don't want the responsibility of whether a person lives or dies."

I've not been able to convert even one of the handful of people from whom I've heard that mangled thought. I've tried "For starters, that cardiac arrest victim is already dead and is most likely going to stay dead, if all you do is call 911. If you call 911 and then start pumping on his chest, his odds of getting out of the hospital with major brain functions intact go way up. Taking a CPR course doesn't place you in a position where you are responsible for whether that person lives or dies. It's really the other way around: NOT taking the CPR course raises the probability that the person you see arrest will stay dead. You have a one-in-seven chance of seeing at least one cardiac arrest in your lifetime, and when you do, the victim is most likely going to be a family member or friend."

It hasn't worked.

Can you suggest a different approach that I can try?

Thanks,

Bob Trenkamp
BobT@SLICC.org