If you want to be prepared to deal with medical emergencies your family may face, then taking a CPR course would be a good idea. Whether your family is healthy or if someone has heart disease or other health problems, knowing CPR could save their life because of action you take while waiting on an ambulance to arrive. Here are some skills you can learn by taking a CPR class.

You Learn To Help Someone Who Is Choking

You never know when your spouse or small child will choke on food while dining or eating a piece of candy. By taking quick action to clear their airway, you could save your loved one's life. You're taught how to handle choking emergencies in a CPR course. You learn how to help an adult with the Heimlich maneuver that delivers forceful thrusts to the abdomen. You can even learn how to do the maneuver on yourself if you're home alone.

You'll also learn proper technique for clearing the airway of a young child without harming them. You'll learn the universal signs that indicate someone has an obstructed airway and when you should take action and when you should call 911.

You Learn To Do CPR On An Infant Safely

It can be intimidating to do CPR on anyone, but especially so on a baby since they're so fragile. If there's a baby in your family that has a medical condition, the pediatrician might even recommend parents and grandparents learn how to do CPR in case of an emergency.

While you've probably seen CPR done on adults on TV shows, you may never have seen it on an infant, and you probably have no idea where to place your fingers and how to do compressions safely. You'll learn everything you need to know about infant and child CPR in class so you have peace of mind that you can handle an emergency that strikes a young one due to illness or an accident such as drowning.

You Learn How To Do Adult CPR

Knowing how to do adult CPR can not only put your mind at ease, but it could make someone in your family with heart disease feel safer at home. Starting CPR as soon as someone collapses greatly increases their risk of survival. When you take a CPR course, you learn the basic steps you need to know to start and continue CPR.

You'll learn how to quickly assess someone's condition if you come upon them unconscious and when you witness the collapse. You'll learn when to call for help and when to start chest compressions. You'll also learn proper technique which is important for preventing cracked ribs and a lacerated liver. You'll learn how often to stop and check for a response to your efforts.

You learn all this information through a combination of class lectures, reading a small book, and then practicing skills on a CPR dummy. When you practice on a mannequin, you'll get feedback that shows if your compressions are the right frequency and strength, and this helps you know if your efforts would be effective on a real person.

You don't need a medical background or previous training to take a CPR course. You're taught everything you need to know during the class. In addition to learning actual skills of doing CPR, you also learn a little about heart health and how to prevent a cardiac emergency in yourself or someone you love.

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