Over the next two weeks approximately 1200 students will receive CPR training through a program delivered by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of New Brunswick.
November is CPR month and the foundation’s Sean Payne says there are 40,000 cardiac arrests annually in Canada, or approximately one every 12 minutes. In New Brunswick, there’s over 1100 out of hospital cardiac arrests every year.
“Someone who has an out of hospital cardiac arrest has about a five percent chance of survival, but that statistic doubles to approximately 10 percent if an AED (automated external defibrillator) is used in conjuction with early CPR,” says Payne.
The program is about a one hour session and it’s DVD based and very hands-on with the training mannequin.
Payne says they want to make sure as many New Brunswickers as possible have this skill.
“Working with our schools and our students is a great place to start…these kits available in schools are able to be taken out and have this skill shared with family members as well because it is DVD based and it can be self taught,” he says.
Over 10,000 high school students in N.B. have already been educated in this program. This week students at Simonds High in Saint John learned this skill.
