Ill. Fire Dept. Teaches Residents CPR to Prevent Cardiac-Related Deaths

The Telegraph, Alton, Ill.

With medical calls making up about 85 percent of the Godfrey Volunteer Fire Department's callouts, this year's open house will emphasize the importance of cardiac care and learning CPR.

The open house will be from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20 at Godfrey Fire Protection District Station 2, 1712 W. Delmar Ave., Godfrey.

Normally held in conjunction with National Fire Prevention Week, this year's open house is a week later.

"It was more of just a scheduling issue," Godfrey Fire Protection District Chief Erik Kambarian said. "We wanted to make sure some of our critical people were there. In reality it actually worked out for us because we want to highlight something of great importance to us, Sudden Cardiac Arrest Month."

He noted that approximately 85 percent of all calls the department goes out on are medical, and they average 17-20 cardiac arrest cases each year.

"Emergency medical services and cardiac arrests is a huge part of what we do," Kambarian said.

"In 2016 we decided to take a multifaceted approach to try to improve survival."

Part of that is involving the public, and training dispatchers in recognizing cardiac arrests more quickly.

At the open house, people will get a chance to test their CPR skills on a new training mannequin that can provide feedback on depth, rate and other factors.

"It's kind of like a game, it's very interactive and entertaining, and at the same time we can teach you how to save a life," Kambarian said.

He is especially interested in having adults try.

"We want people who can actually do good chest compressions to get down on the ground with us and that training mannequin and feedback device and actually do CPR so they know just a little bit of how it might be in reality," he said.

He noted that after someone calls in it can take 4-6 minutes for firefighters or other first responders to arrive, and each minute without chest compressions means a 10 percent less chance of survival.

'"Anything is better than nothing," Kambarian said. "If they can do that for a few minutes until we arrive that person's chance of survival has dramatically improved."

There will also be displays and other activities, as well as pulled pork sandwiches and kettle chips.

"This year it's a little more laid back," he said. "We're not going to have a burn room or anything flashy. We will have a helicopter. But our focus this year is just to sit down with our citizens and basically have lunch and talk."

For more information visit the department's website at www.godfreyfire.com, or the department's Facebook page.