Ottawa River Rescue teaches CPR classes every month. Fire Chief Brian Bressner says the Ottawa Fire Department may start classes too.
Bressner is working out the details and hopes to start a class this year. The department could get CPR dummies and other equipment. Giving someone CPR before an ambulance arrives can make the difference between life and death for someone whose heart stopped.
Bressner says the area’s fire and ambulance services are better equipped to save lives because of pandemic relief funds. Devices can now do the hard work of restarting hearts.
One device does the heart compression work that’s exhausting for anyone doing CPR. There are also defibrillators to help in some situations. Bressner says with the devices, heart resuscitations have risen from 5% to more than 40%. That doesn’t mean all those patients fully recovered, but many lived long enough to get treatment in a hospital.