Delaware National Guard Guard hosts 11th annual community CPR courses
Story and photos by Spc. James Vadakin, 1/444th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
Tonya Barnes of Wimington practices chest compressions on a
training mannequin
Photo by Spc. James
Vadakin
The Guard opened its doors to the community for the 11th consecutive year by hosting the Dupont Volunteer CPR Training Center’s cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) classes at the New Castle Country Airport on Monday, January 28th.
The classes were open to the general public for one dollar, which paid for the student’s CPR manuals, according to one of the group’s instructors, Senior Master Sgt. Jud Orescan, a network manager with the Air Guard’s 166th Communications Flight. Orescan has been a member of Dupont Volunteer CPR Training Center since the group’s inception in 1987, and he has aided the Air Guard’s Safety Office in bringing classes to Guard armories over the past 11 years.
The class attracted 128 participants this year for the 2-hour sessions. Among them were Guard personnel, their family members, lifeguard trainees, and a local ministry group. Students were taught how to perform rescue breathing, CPR, and the Heimlich Maneuver. Instructor, Kay Bogart underscored the importance of CPR: "Heart attacks are the number one killer in the United States, and the Brain can only go four to six minutes without oxygen. Prompt and skillful CPR can mean the difference between life and death."
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Senior Master Sgt. Jud Orescan, of the 166th Communications Flight, demonstrates the Heimlick Maneuver to his CPR class. Photo by Spc. James Vadakin |
"I was just returning to work from lunch and was talking with the military policeman at the entrance to the River Road facility where he was doing a spot check on vehicles when a construction worker came over and told us that someone had collapsed and was laying prone across the street at a construction site."
Balascio and Sgt. Darrin Pratz, a military policemen on duty at the USPFO facility, promptly ran across the street to help, and finding the victim prone and without a pulse. They began CPR. Balascio performed chest compressions, while Pratz performed assisted breathing.
"No one at the construction site knew CPR. They were all kind of standing there with their hands in their pockets," said Balascio. By the time he and Pratz arrived, the patient had been down about 10 minutes or so.
The victim was pronounced dead at the hospital, but Balascio, Pratz and several other soldiers who later joined them did everything they could. Pratz had also assisted the EMTs with their equipment and with transporting the patient when the ambulance arrived.
They were surprised to learn that the victim had not survived.
"I was pretty sure he was still alive when the ambulance arrived. It was depressing when we found out he didn't survive," said Balascio.
"He had a pulse and was breathing sporadically when the ambulance arrived," agreed Pratz.
Bogart told her class that a heart attack victim’s chance for survival declines quickly every moment without CPR. It may have made all the difference if someone at the construction site had known CPR.
Unfortunately not everyone knows CPR,
but thanks to the Dupont CPR Training Center and the Guard at least 128
members of the community are prepared for the unexpected emergency.
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Tonya Barnes, of Wimington, practices assisted breathing on a training mannequin.Photo by Spc. James Vadakin |
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