Program offers home
CPR training kits

A skill learned as a teenager from her father, a firefighter, and relearned while teaching at Kamehameha Schools enabled Kerri-Ann Hewett to save her mother's life.

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM The American Heart Association’s CPR Ohana kit includes step-by-step pictures and instructions, a video and a practice mannequin.

Her mother, Gerry, suffered cardiac arrest May 2, 2004, in her sleep in their Waiau home. Hewett performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation until firefighters arrived.

"It's not so much that I did anything spectacular," said Hewett, 47. "It's just kuleana of a family member. I love my mom so much."

She said it is crucial for people to know CPR so they can help someone in distress, especially another family member.

And now residents have a chance to learn the basic skill in about 30 minutes under a new American Heart Association program.

Honolulu County was chosen by the association as one of 12 preview sites for the new program, locally called CPR Ohana. Elsewhere, it is "CPR Anytime for Family and Friends."

A "personal learning program" is spelled out in a home kit with step-by-step pictures and instructions, a video and a "MiniAnne" mannequin to practice on.

Residents who make a reservation to attend a preview training event starting at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Filipino Community Center in Waipahu will receive a free CPR Ohana kit.

The AHA will distribute 500 kits under a grant provided by the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. Kits also will be available for sale at a later date.

Call 538-7021, ext. 25, to participate, because space is limited.

More than 250,000 people die annually in the United States from cardiac arrest, and about 5 percent survive, according to the heart association.

An effective 911 Emergency Medical Services system, early CPR, early defibrillation and early advanced medical care can help improve survival rates in a community, association officials said.

About 70 percent of heart attacks and strokes occur in the home, but the average age of people trained for CPR in the workplace is 25 to 30, said Dory Clisham, chair of the association's Community Heart and Stroke Volunteer Committee.

She said the new program is aimed at people "who are at home, who have never taken a class and wouldn't mind watching a video and learning about it" in half an hour.

Participants Saturday will watch the video, open the kits, inflate the mannequin and go through the procedure, she said. "We will ask them to go home and share it with family and friends."

Clisham said Honolulu's selection reflects "the great strides we've already made in improving lifesaving skills in our community, from providing free mass CPR training events to distributing automatic external defibrillators to community organizations."

A victim's chances of survival are greatly increased when a bystander has begun administering CPR, she added.

Hewett, assistant professor in the University of Hawaii Institute for Teacher Education, noted, "Once you learn how, it's almost like riding a bike; you always know how."