Training on CPR held in Guimaras

CEBU, Philippines — Cardiac arrest is still the leading cause of death among Filipinos. Some of those who died were caused by the absence of a trained person, or one willing to perform, a cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) number.

Given this scenario, Dr. Nanette Rey, president of the Philippine Heart Association, believed that hands-only CPR could reduce the number of deaths associated with cardiac arrest and increase a victim’s chance of survival.

“Timely administration is very important. In a span of 3 to 4 minutes without administrating a CPR, it can cause irreversible brain damage,” she said.

Rey said that responding to a health emergency is one of the challenges that every Filipino, aged 10-65 years old, should be prepared for. “We are keen on bringing CPR to every Filipino home by making at least one family member in every household CPR-savvy,” she added.

Buoyed by its impressive performance in Boracay and Iloilo in October and December 2016, the PHA’s national and Western Visayas-Panay chapters staged another CPR on Wheels and Wings (CWW) activity in Guimaras province last Sept. 2.

Around 1,000 people — employed with the tourism industry and the Guimaras provincial government — attended the hands-only CPR training, and automated external defibrillator lecture and demonstration.

Participants gathered at the Guimaras Capitol gymnasium as early as 7 a.m. on Sunday, for the four-minute, high-impact exercises, ushered in by the Fit Filipinos and Sneakers Friday routine with celebrity coaches Jim and Toni Saret.

Among the participants were policemen, barangay councilmen and health workers, government officers and staff, hotel-resort-restaurant front liners or service providers (lifeguards, tour guides, drivers, boatmen, ambulant vendors, among others), who are the first responders to emergencies like sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and drowning cases.

CWW, conceived by the PHA and the Department of Tourism, is the promotion vehicle of the CPR-Ready PH 2021 project set by the PHA three years ago. It later evolved into a multi-sector endeavor, and among its stakeholders were the DOT regional offices, local governments and the private sector.

The PHA and the DOT bonded anew to partner with the Guimaras LGU, under Governor Samuel Gumarin, who is incidentally a medical doctor by profession. The island-province of Guimaras is the 20th CWW destination, which has been to 19 destinations and trained at least 100,000 lay people.

The CWW’s main thrust now is to transform every commercial facility, town or city into a safe and CPR-ready community towards a CPR-Ready country.

PHA WV-Panay chapter past president, Dr. Rhodelyn Besañes-Almeñana, said there is a need for a CPR-ready Western Visayas. By 2021, the PHA aimed to have 20 percent of Filipinos know hands-only CPR, she added.