Five Minutes to a Life-Saving Skill

and (EMS) will draw on their long-standing partnership to offer free compression-only CPR education in First County Bank branches over the next seven weeks. On Saturday mornings, representatives from Stamford EMS can help everyone to leave the bank knowing they could intervene if they ever encounter someone in cardiac arrest.

“They came to us and asked if they could use our branches for community outreach,” Karen Kelly, director of marketing, sales and product development at First County Bank said. “We’re neighbors. They serve the community and so do we.”

Close to 300,000 people suffer from out-of-hospital cardiac arrests each year in the U.S. and Canada. Studies indicate that a bystander performing CPR can double or triple survival-rate and compression-only CPR is just as effective as mouth-to-mouth in adults.

“It takes less than five minutes to learn,” Joe Larcheveque, deputy chief of training at Stamford EMS told Patch. "First County Bank is a great community partner, we wanted to ramp it up and do CPR education at the banks.”

On Saturdays, Larcheveque will be joined by colleagues, Eileen Brophy and John DeMaio. Larcheveque, Brophy, and DeMaio will be demonstrating on mannequins, talking people through the correct procedure, and discussing risk factors. Visitors to the bank will have the opportunity to practice compression and using an AED (automatic external defibrillator).

“They’re hanging on walls in airports, grocery stores, all over public places, we’ll let them hold them, practice, and say, 'Yes, I can do this,'” Larcheveque said.

"We can talk about how to use one all day, but it's different to actually get to try it out," DeMaio said.

Some people may worry that they may do something wrong or make the situation worse if they try to intervene in an emergency situation.

“It’s important to remember that the state they’re in — they’re clinically dead. It’s better to do something than to do nothing,” Larcheveque said. “Connecticut has very strong Good Samaritan laws, people worry — they think that if they break a rib and the person survives, they’ll come about them. If you intervene with good intentions, the laws protect you.”

On Saturday, the first day of the program, 18 people stopped to learn CPR in just the first couple hours and the team was happy with the community response. Brophy walked people through the process, using her upbeat teaching style and engaging analogies to break down the steps. To correctly time the compressions, she sang the aptly-titled Bee Gees song "Stayin' Alive."

Flyers reiterated the process and listed the three simple steps to saving a life: call 9-1-1, push hard and fast on the center of the chest, and if an AED is available, turn it on and follow the voice instructions.

Compression-only CPR classes will be held at various First County Bank locations in Stamford and Darien every Saturday from 9 am- noon. April 9, they will be at 2950 Summer Street, April 16 at 1042 High Ridge Road, April 23 at 1110 Hope Street, April 30 at 1980 West Main Street, and May 7 at 637 Shippan Avenue in Stamford. A May 14 class will be held at 1006 Post Road in Darien.