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National Hands-Only CPR Tour comes to West Virginia

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — This past June, Caleb Tisdale from Parkersburg attended a very special wedding.

It was the wedding of Zach Sandy, the Robert C. Byrd High School graduate who survived being struck by lightning during a softball game at a Parkersburg church camp in July 2012 because Tisdale knew CPR.

“I had learned CPR through being a lifeguard and I was working as a camp counselor that summer and the old knowledge of being able to do it came in handy,” Tisdale said.

Because of that experience, he recommends CPR training for others.

“You never know when it’ll be a loved one or a family member,” Tisdale told MetroNews on Wednesday in Downtown Charleston where dozens of people were getting trained during the first West Virginia stop for the American Heart Association’s Hand’s-Only CPR National Tour.

Dozens of people were out in Downtown Charleston to learn CPR Wednesday during the first American Heart Association National Hands-Only CPR Tour stop in West Virginia.

The initial host was the Department of Health and Human Resources and Karen Bowling, DHHR secretary, was in an early group of trainees.

Before the tour leaves the Mountain State Friday, the goal is to provide free CPR training to 750 people.

It’s part of a larger AHA effort to double bystander response during cardiac arrest in the U.S. from 31 percent to 62 percent by 2020.

CPR, especially if administered immediately after cardiac arrest, can double or triple a person’s chance of survival, according to the American Heart Association.

Hands-Only CPR has two steps: (1) call 911 if someone collapses and (2) push hard and fast in the center of the chest until help arrives.

Music was part of Wednesday’s training.

The free Hands-Only CPR training came with kits and in-person instruction. In all, the national AHA tour will make three stops in West Virginia.

“You’re more likely to remember the correct rate to perform Hands-Only CPR and feel confident when trained to the beat of your own song,” one instructor told participants.

The target for chest compressions is 100 to 120 beats per minute, heard in songs like Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie” which was one of the example songs used in Downtown Charleston.

Other West Virginia stops for the American Heart Association’s Hands-Only CPR National Tour include the University of Charleston from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 29 and from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 30 at Riverside High School’s Homecoming Game.

Anthem is the national sponsor for the tour, while the UniCare Foundation was sponsoring it locally.

For more on the Hands-Only CPR campaign, CLICK HERE.





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