San Francisco CPR is home to the best CPR and first aid training courses in the city, available at very affordable rates. You can enroll in CPR and/or first aid training, either basic or advanced. We have eight training options for prospective students (five training programs and three re-certification classes), but only one of them is available for the public or laypersons. The rest of the our courses are for health care providers/professionals.
Signing up for training
If you need to be certified for taking CPR and first aid training, all of our courses offer certification. Signing up for training is quite easy; first visit our website for a list of all available classes. On the website is an online form that you can fill out with your personal details and the details of the program you want to take. If you want to enroll through e-mail, telephone call, or in person, you may do so as well. We want our trainees to have hassle-free enrollment so we provided these different methods for them.
Watching out for a heart attack (myocardial infarction/MI)
When you enroll in any of our CPR programs, you will learn how to recognize the signs and symptoms of a heart attack. This topic is found in all our training programs, because CPR is mainly used to help victims who experience cardiac arrest, usually resulting from a heart attack.
A heart attack in medical terms is called a myocardiac infarction or MI. A heart attack or MI happens when the blood flow to the heart is suddenly cut off. This can be caused by sudden constriction of the coronary arteries or a blockage from plaque. MI’s are characterized by severe chest pain that cannot be relieved by rest or medication (only morphine can relieve the pain from a heart attack).
Other signs and symptoms:
- Loss of consciousness / decrease in level of consciousness
- Fatigue
- Pallor
- Cold sweat
- Pain radiating to the upper extremities, nape, abdomen, and back
Learning how to give chest compressions
The most important part of giving CPR is chest compressions – performed adequately and timely. Chest compressions are done by pressing hard and fast in the middle of the chest. This manually compresses the heart so blood circulates in the body during cardiac arrest. However, there are several things to consider when giving chest compressions:
- Rate of compressions should be at least 100 a minute
- Compression: ventilation ratio is 30:2
- Allow the chest to recoil before giving the next compression
- In adults, the chest is compressed by at least 2 inches; in infants and toddlers, the chest is compressed by approximately 1.5 inches (the rule: compress the chest by 1/3 of the anterior-posterior ratio)
- Give compressions to the center of the chest (sternum), between the nipples (on the nipple line), with two hands on top of each other and pressing down with the heel of your hand