As if to prove that CPR training really works, a bystander used CPR to save a runner who had collapsed while running the Market Square Day 10K race in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Seacoast Online reported that a runner competing in the Market Square Day 10K had collapsed on the road and was unresponsive. An unidentified bystander provided CPR to the runner, until firefighters arrived to continue recovery. By the time the victim arrived at the emergency room, he had a “strong heartbeat and was breathing on his own”.
This is reminiscent of the Boston Athletic Associations efforts this year to provide Boston Marathon runners and volunteers with hands-only CPR training, with the goal of increasing the availability of trained responders along the course. They produced an informative instructional video that was shown to participants in the week before the big race.
This one bystander, whose only training may have been one of these instructional videos, was able to use CPR to keep one runner alive long enough to save him. This is a real life example where someone’s CPR knowledge, applied during the critical minutes between when someone becomes unresponsive and professional medical help arrives, made the difference between life and death.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
It’s really exciting to read stories like this about people whose lives were saved because someone took the time to learn CPR.
And like the article mentions, the rescuer’s only training may have been an instructional video on hands-only CPR! It is just so easy (and quick) to learn how to do hands-only CPR that there is just no excuse for people not to learn. A quick search on Google for “hands-only cpr training” will teach you what you need to know in a few minutes.