BEND, OR -- When Buffalo Bills Safety Damar Hamlin collapsed during a Monday Night Football game, medics responded almost immediately and began CPR. "If they wouldn’t have responded as quickly as they did, likely he would not have survived," says Drew Norris, Bend Fire and Rescue’s Deputy Chief of EMS, "Between six and ten minutes, typically brain damage occurs. And they responded in seconds and started CPR. People are two to three times more likely to survive a cardiac event or cardiac arrest if CPR is started within one to two minutes, versus six to ten minutes."
Bend Fire offers free community CPR training on the first Wednesday of every month. Norris says local businesses encourage employees to get trained so anyone can respond at a moment’s notice. "We have one of the highest survival rates in the nation because people are willing to do CPR right off the bat. If they waited [until] the fire department arrived with paramedics, likely we wouldn’t have the same numbers we do." Click HERE to sign up for CPR training with Bend Fire & Rescue. 

Even without formal training, Norris says anyone can start CPR if they witness a cardiac event. He tells KBND News, "We want to just start compressions, hard and fast in the middle of the chest - right about 100-110 beats per minute. If you can put your phone on speaker and call 911, they will talk you through it." He adds, "Our 911 system will ask you a few questions and if they can determine the patient is not breathing and doesn’t have a heartbeat, they will walk you through CPR and they actually have a metronome so you do it the correct rate; and they’ll walk you through what depth to go through." He notes breaths are no longer thought necessary to keep someone alive until medics arrive.