Robeson County EMS provides hands-only CPR training for 5 families

The Robesonian, Lumberton, N.C.
·2 min read

Jun. 28—LUMBERTON — The Hands-Only CPR Challenge by Robeson County EMS was a success, according to the organization.

Robeson County EMS trained five families, which totaled 17 people, on the techniques of hands-only CPR. Four of the families were from Robeson County and one family was from Scotland County.

"We wanted to make the training accessible to everyone. So we decided to train at our base or go out to family's home to train," said Patrick Cummings, Robeson County EMS director.

During the EMS assessment, organization leaders learned that most people will not do CPR because they are scared of the unknown.

"Our focus was to make people confident in performing CPR by having the appropriate training and knowledge," the EMS organization said in a statement. "These two families never performed CPR."

The Reeves and Bradley families traveled to the EMS base for training

"I feel confident now that I've had the training and I could do CPR if I needed to," a Reeves family member stated after completing training.

The Reeves and Bradley families asked questions concerning children needing CPR and choking.

"We were able to implement the same approach for hands only CPR to these questions," Robeson County EMS released in a statement.

The Hunt family requested training at their home.

"I feel a lot better now that I know what to do and I could do CPR if I had to," Lisa Hunt said.

"What if I am doing CPR to someone in public and a rib breaks, can I be held liable?" Lisa Hunt said.

Anyone who tries to help someone in cardiac arrest is covered under the North Carolina Good Samaritan Law, according to Robeson County EMS.

"We met our challenge and gave out a total of 5 Robeson County EMS challenge coins to each family that attended the training. We will continue to reach out to the community and provide any kind of medical training the community needs," Robeson County EMS stated.

Free training sessions from RCEMS are available. Training sessions last 30 minutes to an hour.

However, training does not include a CPR certification.

To schedule a training session or receive more information, contact Nestor Rivera, Quality Assurance and Quality Improvement specialist and paramedic with Robeson County EMS at 910-733-0362.