Recently 60 inmates of the Vanderburgh County Jail took part in voluntary CPR training led by the University of Southern Indiana (USI).
This was hands-only CPR training, a style the American Red Cross has been promoting for anyone uncomfortable with rescue breathing.
The class was led by USI nursing senior Anna Schneider. She taught four sessions with 15 students in each.
“‘Hands-only’ takes away the need for rescue breath, so you're not coming into contact,” she said. “If someone has maybe taken some kind of substance, you don't want that to get to you."
She said some people aren’t comfortable with mouth-to-mouth.
“Teaching hands only, you're still giving compressions so that the heart's still pumping until paramedics or medical services get there, just without having to make that contact with mouth to mouth breath.”
She taught them about the defibrillator, and also answered questions, many of which were about how to apply hands-only CPR to saving a child’s life.
USI regularly teaches courses as part of their outreach initiative. This is the second time USI has brought this Red Cross program to the jail.
Clinical Assistant Professor Julie St. Clair said people who are incarcerated may be more frequently exposed to violence, or substance abuse.
“(They) could potentially either themselves or be around somebody that has an overdose,” she said. “So they are probably at a higher likelihood of being around someone who does need to have CPR implemented than the general population.”
St. Clair said they intentionally seek to reach the most vulnerable with this life-saving knowledge.
According to the American Heart Association, 436,000 Americans die from cardiac arrest annually. More than 350,000 cardiac arrests occur outside of a hospital every year. To St. Clair, this makes makes educated bystanders important.
“If you can have a bystander immediately start CPR If they witness a cardiac arrest, then you can double or triple the person's chances of survival,” she said.
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