CINCINNATI -- We all know that CPR saves lives, and most people receive some training as part of their education, but could you actually resuscitate a real person in need?
Dr. Edmond Hooker, professor of health services administration at Xavier University, said many potential rescuers -- even those who have received some training -- freeze up in crisis situations because they are afraid of performing CPR incorrectly or hurting the person who needs it.
"I've driven up with an ambulance and seen everyone watching, no one doing CPR," he said. "That person isn't going to make it."
That's why he teaches Xavier freshmen a unique CPR class -- one that focuses on just the easy-to-remember basics.
"In the last five to eight years, we've realized compression is the key to saving lives," he said. "We've taken mouth-to-mouth and pulse checks away from it. We just want people to do CPR."
Unlike other CPR training courses, Hooker's is brief and to the point, focusing only on properly delivering the compressions that are so vital to helping victims of drowning and cardiac arrest.
Without help, Hooker said, only three percent of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims will survive. When bystanders intervene, that number jumps to 20 percent.
"I feel extremely confident," graduate student Jasmine Cline-Bailey said after taking Hooker's class. "I feel that in any situation, if anyone needs CPR, I'd be confident to administer."
You can learn more about hands-only CPR from the American Heart Association website here.
