PANAMA CITY BEACH — Panama City Beach Fire Rescue took advantage of the high traffic at Pier Park to teach the basics of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, on dummies for shoppers passing by Friday.
“We’re doing it here at Pier Park on Black Friday because we figured we’d have a big crowd out to teach as many as possible,” said firefighter Brandon Mumford.
Firefighters had four adult-sized dummies out on the sidewalk in front of Dave & Buster’s and four infant dolls for the public to practice CPR. Mostly parents with groups of small children took advantage of the quick instruction.
“Normal CPR is the compressions and the breaths,” Mumford said. “They came out with hands-only CPR, which is for when you’re not at home or with a loved one.”
Mumford said many are not comfortable doing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation if an emergency evolves with someone they don’t know.
“Studies found that compression-only CPR is nearly just as effective as CPR with the breaths,” Mumford said. “You’re at least doing something for them in keeping their heart moving blood throughout their body.”
Firefighters demonstrated on the dummies how to administer chest-only compressions and then let participants give it a try.
Mumford said four out of five cardiac arrests happen at home with a loved one, but every second of time becomes precious when it can take EMS or firefighters 3 to 7 minutes to arrive.
He said basic hands-only CPR doubles or triples the victim’s chances of surviving a cardiac episode.
The basic hands-only procedure is for the responder to first call 911 if they see someone go unresponsive and then administer hard, fast compressions in the center of the victim’s chest at a rate of at least 100 compressions per minute until help arrives.
He said 911 callers are given instructions over the phone on how to perform the same procedure.
“The longer they lay there without getting CPR, their chances of survival are diminished greatly,” Mumford said. “We just wanted to show as many as possible how to do the basics.”