A classmate of mine from high school recently posted his dramatic experience from back in my hometown of a Chippewa Falls, WI. It was a great reminder that we ALL need to be CPR trained and ready for action. In the same week that he posted his personal, heroic story, I also heard two other stories that were the exact opposite. They were stories of people who did not jump into action and did not do CPR, subsequently a person in one of those situations died right before their eyes. They wondered (and posted this on Facebook) if they could have saved the person had they done CPR. Perhaps those others who didn’t act and perform CPR because they weren’t trained or they were fearful, or maybe they didn’t think the person would actually die. When we call 911, the minutes it takes for them to arrive can be life or death for a person who has stopped breathing. Which is why, we, as fellow human beings, need to be ready to jump into action and perform CPR or other life saving measures while emergegency personal are on their way. I want to share Jedd Smith’s story to encourage others to become CPR certified. Here are his postings from Facebook, including the follow up after the story, way to go Jedd!

His update a few days later:

CPR can extend a life. Sometimes for hours, weeks, or years. The point is to just do it, to give that person another chance at life. The rest is up to God. Our son Barron went into cardiac arrest one evening while we were staying at a hotel in Minneapolis for a weekend getaway. My husband gave Barron CPR. It saved his life. Barron had a terminal disorder, but my husband giving him CPR gave us another three weeks with him. During those three weeks our family members were able to fly in from all over the country to meet him and say goodbye as well.

I want to encourage others to become CPR certified. There are many options for CPR training (just google it to see for yourself) or you can go to the Red Cross CPR Training website to find a class near you (simply enter your location on their site).

On my Blog Facebook Page COMMENT on the posting for this article. I will use Random.org to chose ten people from the comments to give away CPR Mask keychains to those ten people.