Lifesaving Skills

J.D. Hightower enrolled in the CPR Training and Certification course at the Thousand Oaks Teen Center when he was 12. Now a year later, he recalls, “Somebody asked me to baby-sit [and] this way it could help me out if something happened.”

The daylong CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) class he attended is offered regularly at the Teen Center--the next session is this Saturday--and J.D. recommends the experience.

He remembers how the Red Cross-certified instructor began the class, which is open to 12- to 17-year-olds: “He said he was going to teach us as though we were going to be saving his life.”

From that point on, J.D. says, it was all business: learning how to restore breathing when a baby, child or adult becomes unconscious from an accident or heart attack.

The main point, he learned, is “The air has to go in the first time.” Oxygen needs to get to the brain and heart right away because brain damage can begin four to six minutes after a person falls unconscious.

Emergency CPR during this crucial period can increase the survival chances of the victim significantly. In the case of a heart attack, according to the American Red Cross, administering CPR to the victim promptly can boost the survival rate by 40%.

Students in the Teen Center course devote the morning to a lecture-demonstration specific to CPR for infant and child accident victims, adult accident victims and heart attack victims.

After lunch there are extensive practice sessions, devoted to mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and external chest compressions, using a special mannequin. These are carefully monitored by the instructor. The point is to prepare students to take a test--first a written exam and then a hands-on part--so they can earn Red Cross certification.

J.D. recalls his experience with the test: “Some of the things in the written test they hadn’t explained in the lecture.” After checking over the test results, the instructor “talked to me [and] explained the grade would be based on how we would do CPR on him.”

The course material was not watered down just because the students were kids, according to J.D.’s mom, Judy Hightower, a special education teacher who sat in on the class. “Nothing was compromised. It was very thorough,” she says.

That’s good to know, because according to Teen Center Services director Brenda Coleman, everyone who enrolls makes it through to successful certification. The point is to make sure enrollees know their stuff by the conclusion of the course.

This CPR program, part of a series of first-aid courses which Coleman launched at the center in 1989, takes place five times a year and has trained hundreds of kids.

BE THERE

CPR Training and Certification Workshop is open to youths, ages 12-17, at Thousand Oaks Teen Center, 1375 E. Janss Road, Sat., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Bring a bag lunch. Sodas are provided. $20. Textbook available for $20. 494-5156. For information on other American Red Cross CPR training courses in Ventura County, call 339-2234 or 582-8630.