Marshall Fire EMS Chief says BeeGee’s hit could save a life

May 19, 2016

Marshall Fire Department to hold ‘hands-only-CPR’ awareness training
By Becky Holland, [email protected]

MARSHALL – How many of you remember the BeeGees? Or what about the BeeGees’ classic disco hit, ‘Stayin’ Alive,’ which was released in 1977? The song was a Grammy-award winner for the group, and later gained more recognition as the theme music to the movie of the same name starring John Travolta?

Did you know the beat of that one song can help you save a life?

According to Randall Jeans, Battalion Chief/ EMS Supervisor for the Marshall Fire Department, the American Heart Association confirmed that when using ‘hands-only-CPR’ that you can push hard and fast on the center “of the chest to someone who has collapsed to the best of the disco song, ‘Stayin’ Alive.’

Jeans said, “During CPR, you should push on the chest at a rate of 100 to 120 compressions per minute, and the song ‘Stayin’ Alive’ is a perfect match for this.”

Important life-saving information like that will be taught at two different ‘Hands-Only-CPR’ training sessions sponsored by the Marshall Fire Department during National CPR and AED Awareness Week.

The sessions will take place from 10 -11 a.m. and from 6 – 7 p.m., Thursday, June 9, at the Central Fire Station at 601 S. Grove St. This training won’t involve receiving any certification, but just will be a purely informational training.

In explaining the reason behind learning ‘hands-only-CPR,’ BC/EMS Chief Jeans said, “Cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death, and survival depends on immediately getting CPR from someone nearby.”

The American Heart Association states, according to Jeans, “about 90 percent of people who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests die. CPR, especially if performed in the first two minutes of cardiac arrest, can double or triple a person’s chance of survival.”

“70 percent of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen in homes, “ he said, adding, “and ‘hands-only-CPR has been shown to be as effective as conventional CPR for cardiac arrest at home, at work or in the public.”

The spacing for the classes on June 9 is limited. Anyone interested in attending should call Randall Jeans at (903)935-4585 or email him at [email protected].

For those who are not able to attend the awareness training session, the American Heart Association has the video online at http://cpr.heart.org/AHAECC/CPRAndECC/Programs/HandsOnlyCPR/UCM_473196_Hands-Only-CPR.jsp.

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