With June being CPR and AED awareness month, would you know what to do if someone needed your help?

While access to dial 911 couldn't be easier thanks to mobile phones; Chelsea Mann, Registered Nurse and Co-owner/Instructor of Cochrane Emergency Training Services (CETS), says if you know some basic life-saving skills, you can boost someone's chance of survival. "Over 70% of cardiac arrests occur in homes and public places, and many are witnessed by a family member, co-worker or friend. The survival rate of cardiac arrest outside a hospital is very low. However, performing CPR and using an AED before Emergency Medical Services arrive, can increase the chance of survival by up to 75%."

If somebody is found unconscious and not breathing, Mann says the scenario is fairly black and white, and the person is considered to be in cardiac arrest. "Which in that case the action is to call 911 and start CPR immediately, even if you are not trained and just start doing compressions and get an AED."

"An AED stands for Automated External Defibrillator; when a person goes into cardiac arrest, the heart rather than having a nice rhythm is going chaotic because there is an electrical problem within the heart. So while CPR can maintain perfusion to our vital organs it doesn't have the potential to correct the cause. Where AEDs are shown to correct cardiac arrests, improve survival rates by 75% because electricity is being used to get into the electrical system of the heart to tell it to smarten up and get back to its normal, healthy functioning rhythm. They say that every single minute that passes that an AED is not used, survival rates drop by 7 to 10%."

If you think it is difficult or scary to use an AED, Mann says you don't need to worry these days; technology has made AEDs so simple that anyone could use one. "Nowadays they are the most user-friendly things in the world. When we turn on a real AED as a demo for a course, there used to be an on button, and they have even simplified it to even get rid of that, now there is a giant bar that says 'PULL'. Once you pull it, it automatically comes on and it is going to tell you to put the pads on the patient's chest, you never have to remember where they go because the picture is right on the back of the pads."

Chelsea and Alex Mann of CETS.While AEDs can be found in schools and public facilities, Mann says knowing exactly where they are located within a building is valuable information. "Nowadays we all have cell phones and the time in which we can call 911 is really quick, however, the 'get me an AED' part is still lacking because often we don't know where an AED is. So the time and those minutes where you are trying to figure it out could be a drop in survival rate for every minute that passes."

CETS is a huge promoter of bystander CPR and strives to give community members the confidence that doing something is better than doing nothing. While there are the  'want to learners' and the 'have to learners', Mann is hoping more people elect to take training because they have a genuine interest in gaining the confidence they need in the case that an emergency arises. "I believe as a general population it is our responsibility to be educated in cardiac arrest, know what it is, and how to respond to emergencies and not just default to 911 and wait it out. If you don't want to spend the money to take a course, go read a blog we have up or google some things. Have the knowledge of knowing where the AED locations are and the confidence to be able to help out in whatever way you can during an emergency." 

Working in Pediatrics as a Registered Nurse, Mann knows all too well the difference it can make. "We see it all the time; I know most people think they will never find themselves in an emergency situation and that they will just call 911, but being on the reverse of that, I see the different cases that come in. The patient's that come in that receive bystander CPR, usually get to go home, and the ones that don't, don't."

Mann has already started a database of AED locations for the Cochrane area but encourages all businesses and organizations that have one on site to contact her by emailing cets.contact@gmail.com. "It would be great if we could have a more comprehensive list of where they are, and then somehow promote that list in a fun, engaging way."

If you would like to learn more about all the programs and services CETS provides, go HERE. Cochrane Emergency Training Services can teach you at their home base or a location of your choice and strives to teach informatively but in a fun, interactive way, so that the information sticks.