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Free CPR training aims to get 250 Toledoans trained

The goal of this training in Toledo is to get roughly 250 kits to people in the community where they can learn hands only CPR.

TOLEDO, OH (WTOL) - Toledoans were invited to learn a life-saving skill Tuesday, for free. The American Heart Association made this open to the public.

The goal of this training in Toledo is to get roughly 250 kits to people in the community where they can learn hands only CPR.

"We get a few people who are a little nervous to learn in but they're surprisingly very easy," said Sandy Viletti, American Heart Association CPR trainer. "The comment how easy it is to learn it and to really understand it."

"I've never done this before and I've always wanted to do it," said Ellena Lee, CPR training participant. "We learned the hands only - there's no mouth to mouth or anything like. We learned chest compressions. We learned the amount of pressure we need to put on the chest until the emergency team arrives."

The training focuses on hands only or CPR. Trainers said they are shifting from teaching the mouth to mouth training for two reasons: they
said there is enough oxygen in the blood to sustain someone for a several minutes but that it's a matter for pumping it through the body. Secondly, they said more people feel comfortable with the hands-only approach.

Lee said she organized a group of her co-workers to attend the training.

"Oh it was an immediate response," said Lee. "Some of them have taken the course before so they were familiar and a lot of them have not taken the course."

"We want everybody that comes here today to take this home and share it with five people,"said  Allyson France, American Heart Association in Toledo. "Think of the lives that we can impact just today alone."

The participants left with training dummies so they can teach their friends, family or co-workers. Trainers said that 90 percent of out of hospital sudden cardiac arrest patients don't make it.

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