Program offers free training to members of the public
Throughout the year, Mt. Laurel EMS has continued with its “Safest Community Initiative” to provide free training to members of the public who want to learn how to administer CPR.
According to MLEMS Chief Joseph Stringfellow near the time of the program’s launch, those victims who experience cardiac arrest and only receive treatment by EMS workers have a survival rate of about 10 percent.
However, victims who receive CPR from bystanders before EMS personnel arrive during an incident can have survival rates as high as 40 percent.
According to Stringfellow, the classes were designed for those in the community who don’t need a CPR certification for their job but who still wanted to learn basic CPR, such as parents, babysitters, grandparents and more.
With the classes, attendees spent up to 90 minutes learning various techniques such as adult hands-on CPR, adult and child AED use, child CPR with breaths, infant CPR, as well as lessons on clearing airways in adults, children and infants.
Those in classes were also able to practice on dummies with guidance from EMS instructors.
