CPR Saturday Offers Free Training to the Public

Billings, MT – CPR Saturday will once again offer free CPR training classes to the public on Saturday, February 29, 2020. Classes will be offered throughout the day beginning at 8 a.m., with the last class starting at noon. Certification courses will take place at 8 a.m. and noon for a $50 fee. CPR Saturday will be held at the Billings Clinic Mary Alice Fortin Health Conference Center (2800 10th Avenue North, next to the hospital cafeteria).

New to the event this year, free Stop the Bleed classes will also be offered. This class provides basic, live-saving training in bleeding control principles which allow people to provide immediate, frontline aid until first responders are able to take over care of an injured person.

This year’s CPR Saturday is being held in honor of Kristi Deckard, the longtime Billings Clinic training center coordinator who chaired CPR Saturday from its creation in 2002 until her passing in 2019.

CPR is an emergency lifesaving procedure used to revive someone who has stopped breathing or whose heart has ceased functioning. Between 75-80% of all sudden cardiac arrests happen at home, so being trained to perform CPR can mean the difference between life and death for a loved one.

• Sudden cardiac arrest results in the deaths of more than 650 adults and children each day in the United States.

• CPR provided immediately after sudden cardiac arrest can double or even triple a victim’s chance of survival.

• Survival of sudden cardiac arrest can be as high as 90 percent if treatment is administered within 4-6 minutes of the arrest.

• On average, only 24.7 percent of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims receive CPR.

If bystander CPR is not provided, a sudden cardiac arrest victim’s chances of survival fall 7 percent to 10 percent for every minute of delay until defibrillation. Few attempts at resuscitation are successful if CPR and defibrillation are not provided within minutes of collapse. With the proper knowledge and tools, everyone can save a life.

CPR Saturday is organized by a coalition of local health care and emergency response organizations, including 373 Consulting, American Medical Response, St. Vincent Healthcare, the Billings Fire Department and Billings Clinic.

To learn CPR, register for CPR Saturday at http://www.billingsclinic.com/classes or by calling (406) 255-8440.