Knowing CPR and be able to use an AED can be the difference of life and death.

CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and AED stands for automatic external defibrillator.

At our Rowan-Cabarrus YMCA locations, all staff, full and part time, have to be trained to be a Red Cross-certified professional rescuer. It’s more in-depth than your community CPR which is great for anyone to have. Most people have an idea from experience or TV or internet what CPR is and what an AED does.

CPR keeps the heart pumping blood through the body by doing chest compressions and giving rescue breaths and an AED can shock a heart back into a correct rhythm I have been certified over 40 years and things have changed over the years. One of the biggest changes is that compressions are most important on a victim with no pulse and is not breathing. The body has still plenty of oxygen in its blood to help supply important organs so as long as the blood is pumping by you pushing on the chest, the chance of survival is already so much better. Many people are uncomfortable or forget how to do rescue breaths so as long as you are doing compressions oxygen will go through the body (at least until emergency personnel arrives).

Make sure airway is clear (tilting chin up by pressing gently on forehead and lifting chin). Most importantly, after checking the victim, call 911 first! Our EMS in Rowan County is quick! And they are trained and have the equipment to give the victim the best chance of survival. Hopefully you are where there is availability to an AED (we have AEDs at all our Rowan-Cabarrus YMCAs). Many places do and again, it has saved so many people who in the past would not have made it with the quick use of an AED.

So what does the AED do? It reads the electrical impulse of the heart and advises you to shock or not to shock. The ones us common folks use will not shock when it’s not needed and won’t shock you by accident. I know many people have told me they are scared because they don’t want to mess up. I believe as long as you are trying to do something, the chance of that victim already increases.

After attaching the stick-on pads (on the pads it shows you were to put them on the chest), the AED analyzes if the heart is in need of a shock. Most commonly, shock is advised when the heart is in V-fib. Ventricular fibrillation, or V-fib, is when the electrical system is out of whack and it quivers, not being able to push the blood through the heart as it supposed to.

CPR/AED and first aid are a recurrent certification and I know some people say, “Why do I have to renew every one or two years?” It’s all about practice isn’t it? The more you practice the more it becomes part of an instinct when reacting to an emergency. I am so happy that I have been keeping up with mine over 40 years. I have been so fortunate that God puts me in the right place at the right time when I had to do CPR and use the AED.

At our YMCAs, we have an EAP (emergency action plan) for multiple emergencies and the more you have things written out and are aware what to do in a non-stress situation, the better you will be prepared to react and act in an emergency situation where it will be stressful, or as I like to call it, organized chaos.

Our local Red Cross chapter has regular trainings to get certified in CPR/AED and first aid. The more people who jump in when needed, the better someone’s chance of survival is. You will also learn what not to do and what is out of your scope of practice. Just because we are certified, we are not emergency personnel, a nurse or a doctor. I can tell you out of experience, at least knowing you did everything you could do to help someone gives that person a whole new chance at life, and what is better than that?

Ester H. Marsh is director of healthy living at the J.F. Hurley YMCA.