Mass CPR Training Planned in Wash.
Jan. 31--SILVERDALE -- Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue is aiming to train 800 people in CPR and how to electrically shock someone's heart back into a normal rhythm.
It is planning to do this all in one day -- Feb. 28 -- with eight free hourlong courses that can accommodate up to 100 students each.
The event the largest training day the district has attempted, said Kevin Bernt, a firefighter and paramedic with CK Fire who is helping promote and organize the day.
This mass training at the Haselwood YMCA in Silverdale is part of CK Fire's goal to improve survival rates for CPR patients, especially those whose hearts have stopped in a cardiac arrest case.
Along with training, the fire department will be demonstrating a new smartphone app that it plans to have up and running by Feb. 28. The app, called PulsePoint, will connect people who need CPR in public places to people trained in CPR.
Those who have signed up for the app are alerted when there is a 911 call for a CPR patient in their general area. Alerts are only sent out for public places or high-traffic areas, not people's homes.
CK Fire will go over the app during the training course, which Bernt says they are keeping simple.
There will be no certification and no chest compression to breath ratios in CPR.
In fact, instructors won't be teaching mouth-to-mouth at all during the training. That practice has been dropped in favor of focusing on deep and properly paced chest compressions.
When a person breaths in, Bernt said, he or she takes in about 21 percent oxygen and breathe out about 10 percent oxygen. During mouth-to-mouth there isn't a tight seal between people's lips, and without a proper seal, a patient won't get the full 10 percent of oxygen breathed out. They probably receive closer to 4 or 5 percent oxygen, Bernt said.
It's not enough to necessarily make a difference, and to perform mouth-to-mouth, you have to stop chest compressions, slowing or stopping the movement of blood through a patient's body. Keeping blood flowing is the new goal.
Kitsap County EMS's protocol dropped mouth-to-mouth to focus on chest compression-based CPR in 2012. This type of CPR is known as high-density CPR and is recommended by the American Heart Association.
In an ideal situation, a CPR patient would receive 100 compressions a minute at a depth of 2 inches.
When you push a patient's chest down 2 inches, it pushes the blood out of the heart, while pulling your hands back up allows the heart to refill with blood.
The rate of compression, how quickly you push down and up, would be the same as the beat of the 1977 song "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees.
There are about 20 songs that have this ideal 100 beats a minute, Bernt said.
CK Fire will have a DJ at the mass training day playing some of these songs.
While CPR has been simplified, Bernt said that using a device to shock someone's heart back in a proper rhythm can be just as simple.
Students will learn how to use automated external defibrillators, also known as AEDs, during the mass training day.
CK Fire also will dispel myths about AED units, like that you could accidentally shock someone who isn't in cardiac arrest.
Bernt said that's not possible.
"I'll put one on if they don't believe me," he said.
The AEDs read a patient's heart rate and won't shock anyone with a normal heart rate.
AEDs are becoming a common sight at businesses and high-traffic areas, like the Kitsap Mall, said Joe Schweiger, another firefighter and paramedic with CK Fire.
Firefighters across the county are working on mapping out where AEDs are located using the PulsePoint app, which will show users the closest AED when they receive a CPR alert.
If new tools, like AEDs, are being put out for public use, the public needs to know how to use them.
New CPR techniques and AEDs are "an important link in the chain of survival," Schweiger said.
Patients are more likely to survive when they receive CPR or a shock by an AED before medical responders arrive.
People first responding to a scene aren't always firefighters, paramedics or police. Those first responders are often people physically closest to the patient.
CK Fire's mass training isn't just about CPR and AED training, it's about creating a more informed community where anyone could be a first responder.
CPR and AED training
What: Free, hourlong courses on CPR and AED use.
When: Feb. 28 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Haselwood YMCA, 3909 NW Randall Way, Silverdale
Register: www.kitsapcountycpr.org/registration
Copyright 2016 - Kitsap Sun, Bremerton, Wash.
