BRYAN, Texas - You don't have to be a first responder to save a life and according to one local CPR instructor you don't even have to be certified to administer CPR.
"You do not have to have a CPR card to do CPR, and even if you have a CPR card that doesn't mean you're good at CPR because you could have taken that class a year ago," said CPR instructor Daniel Owens.
There is a big misconception that if you perform CPR on someone and are not certified you can get in trouble with law enforcement, but this is a misconception that CPR instructor Daniel Owens wants people to know isn't true.
Owens says the typical first responder relief time in an urban area is 5 minutes and in rural areas it can be more than ten minutes
According to health experts if performed in the first few minutes CPR can double or even triple someone's chances of survival.
"At the end of the day it comes down to who can recognize someone is in cardiac arrest and who can they performed adequate chest compressions," said Owens.
For every minute a person goes without bystander CPR, their chance of survival drops by ten percent, which is why Owens stresses the importance of being informed on the proper techniques of administering CPR, even if that training is online.
Brazos Valley CPR certification:
- CPR Brazos Valley
- Brazos Valley CPR & Training
- American Red Cross CPR