Everyone in Maine should know how to perform CPR. A recent Bangor Daily News front-page article described how Kameron Segar helped save his mother’s life by performing cardio-pulmonary resuscitation as she lay unconscious in their Glenburn home, “11-year-old saves his mother,” (BDN, June 11). The story brings home to every Mainer the importance of learning CPR.
So does the June 12-13 web survey response by more than 400 BDN readers to the question about knowing CPR. As taught by the Pine Tree Chapter of the American Red Cross (and all Red Cross Chapters across the country), CPR is easy to learn. CPR skills help save lives.
Every year, the Pine Tree Chapter teaches CPR for adults, children and infants, and provides Red Cross certificates to more than 5,000 local Mainers. Child care providers and summer camp staff are required to have this training. But every parent, every baby sitter, every employee and every community volunteer should know how to help a collapsed victim’s lungs take in life-giving air, and how to help his or her heart to beat.
The classes take about three hours. They are provided by the Pine Tree Chapter at locations in Bangor, Rockland and Caribou. They are also taught by Red Cross instructors or Red Cross-trained people at caring businesses and organizations in many communities.
The state of Maine, realizing how important it is to learn skills that can help save lives, provides immunity from lawsuits that could arise from providing CPR help — the so-called “Samaritan law.” Title 14, Part 1, Chapter 7, section 16, subsection 164 of the Maine Revised Statutes says that “any person who voluntarily … renders first aid, emergency treatment or assistance to a person who is unconscious … shall not be liable for damages for injuries alleged to have been sustained … in the rendering of such … assistance.” If you know CPR, and you can help someone, you are free to do so in the knowledge that you will not be penalized for trying to help.
And helping each other is what Maine is all about. Each year, the Pine Tree Chapter recognizes the “Real Heroes” among us at special award ceremonies at the Bangor Civic Center in November and at Presque Isle’s Northern Maine Community College in April. It is the rare Real Heroes event that does not include someone who has used CPR training to save the life of a loved one, neighbor, co-worker or total stranger.
When young Kameron Seger saw his mother lying at the foot of the stairs, he first called his grandparents. They were not at home, so Kameron called 911. With instructions from a skilled emergency dispatcher at the Penobscot County Regional Communications Center, he provided CPR for 12 minutes until an ambulance and the Glenburn-Hermon EMTs arrived. Kameron’s mom is doing just fine.
Take the time this week to find out how you can learn CPR. Click on www.pinetree.redcross.org to see how and where you can take a Red Cross class. Or call the Pine Tree Chapter at 941-2903 to get that information. Registration takes only a few minutes.
Finding out how to learn CPR takes a few minutes more. The class takes a few hours. Saving a life will stay with you — and the person you save — for many, many years.
Shannon Flavin is executive director of the Pine Tree Chapter of the American Red Cross.