Free CPR, AED training offered at Heartland

Posted on February 24, 2016
AED
Heartland Community College is hosting free AED training on Saturday. (Photo by David Bruce Jr./flickr)

By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – The Illinois Heart and Lung Foundation is marking Heart Month in February by offering free CPR and AED (automatic external defibrillator) training.

Foundation director Kathi Franklin told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin it’s now standard for defibrillator training to be done in conjunction with CPR certification. She said there are several recent examples where that training saved lives.

“In December we had three sudden cardiac arrests in our community, and three of them all survived and are returning to their normal life because of a bystander intervention with CPR and the use of an automatic external defibrillator,” Franklin said.

The foundation is teaming with the American Heart Association, Advocate Heart Institute at Advocate BroMenn and the Red Cross to offer the training in two sessions this Saturday at Heartland Community College in Normal.

Franklin said both sessions are full, but there is a waiting list. Registration information is available at www.ihlf.org.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].

Blogs

Labor Day – Expanding voting rights for all

By Mike Matejka Because of COVID, there is no Labor Day Parade this year.  It’s always a great event for our everyday workers to march proudly down the street and enjoys the festive crowd. If there had been a parade, this year’s Labor Day theme was to be “150 years of struggle: your right to vote.” …

Is federal mobilization the answer?

By Mike Matejka As President Donald Trump threatens to send federal marshals into Chicago, over the objections of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, recall another Illinois Governor who protested the incursion of armed federal personnel into the city.   Those federal troops, rather than calming, escalated the situation, leading to deaths and violence. Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay…

In these troubled times, to my fellow white Americans

By Mike Matejka Our nation is at a unique watershed in human relations. African-Americans have been killed too many times in the past before George Floyd, but the response to this man’s death is international and all-encompassing. I was a grade-schooler during the Civil Rights 1960s. I watched Birmingham demonstrators hosed and the Selma – Montgomery…

Workers’ Memorial Day – Remember those whose job took their life

Looking around our community, when we say employer, most will respond to State Farm, Country, or Illinois State University.   We too often forget those who are building our roads, serving our food, or our public employees. COVID-19 has made us more aware of the risk.  Going to work every day for some people means…