Story Published: Dec 14, 2011 at 1:05 PM PDT
Story Updated: Dec 14, 2011 at 2:47 PM PDT
City staffers practicing CPR.
"If you're in Anatone and you're in cardiac arrest, you're losing 6 to 10% a minute and it takes help 25 minutes to get there, that's not a very good scenario," said Babino.
Which is why the more people who know what to do, the better. Karrie Vanator works in the medical field and said there's always something new to learn.
"AED stuff was new and the CPR stuff we're learning now is new compared to what I learned just last year," said Vanator. "It's upgrading, even as we speak."
City employees were encouraged to take part. New volunteer firefighters, personnel from city hall and the building department got hands on experience with some life saving measures.
"We just want to make sure we keep the city as safe as possible by educating people on the skills they would need in case they come across a situation where they could utilize it," said Babino.
Babino said starting CPR right away or knowing the heimlich maneuver, now called abdominal thrusts, are often an integral part of saving a life. These kinds of life threatening emergencies happen everywhere, all the time.
"Sometimes we have several different cardiac emergencies possibly in a day in the Valley so it happens way more than people think," said Babino.
Now that the Clarkston City staff know how to save your life, you can make sure you can do the same. The Fire Department offers a CPR class to the public every month. You can sign up by calling them at (509) 758-8681.
