CPR TRAINING. Dr. Orlando Bugarin (center), vice president of the Philippine Heart Association, poses with municipal health workers and guests during a hands-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training for 600 students of the Samal Municipal High School in Bataan on Wednesday (Feb. 5, 2020). The PHA, according to Bugarin, advocates to teach at least one member per family on how to perform hands-only CPR to be able to save lives when the need arises. (Photo by Ernie Esconde)
SAMAL, Bataan -- To educate the youth on the importance and actual conduct of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) that could enable them to save lives, the Philippine Heart Association (PHA), in coordination with the Municipal Health Office, conducted Wednesday a hands-only CPR training among 600 high school students here.
Dr. Orlando Bugarin, a prominent cardiologist and PHA vice president (Bataan chapter), led the training at the Samal Municipal High School in the upland village of Gugo.
“Target namin kasama ang Department of Health (DOH) at Red Cross ay magkaroon ng isang miembro ang bawat pamilya na marunong ng CPR. Karaniwang nangyayari ang cardiac arrest sa bahay o workplace (Our target, together with the Department of Health (DOH) and Red Cross is to have one member of each family know how to perform CPR. Cardiac arrest usually happens at home or in the workplace),” he said.
Bugarin said their free hands-only CPR training is part of an awareness campaign that is among the advocacies of their organization.
“Ito ay ginagawang advocacy ng PHA. Tinuturuan natin ang mga pangkaraniwang tao na gumawa ng CPR bilang pagsalba sa mga taong may cardiac arrest gamit ang kamay lamang (This is the advocacy of the PHA. We are teaching the ordinary people to perform CPR to save people having cardiac arrest only with the use of hands),” Bugarin said.
He said that CPR training before used the mouth to mouth method but ordinary people found this hard to learn unlike the new technique that uses hands compressed to the breast.
Part of the training was teaching the students how to know if a person is really having a cardiac arrest and the first thing to do in such a situation.
Bugarin said another advocacy of the PHA in coordination with the Samal municipal government under Mayor Aida Macalinao, is the use of Automated External Defibrillator (AED), a portable electronic device that automatically diagnoses cardiac arrhythmias of ventricular fibrillation.
“Paglalagay ng AED sa strategic location para kung kailangan magamit ng ating mga kababayan. CPR saka AED na kapag pinagsama natin tumataas ang pag-asa o chance na ma-revive ang pasyente na nagka-cardiac arrest (Putting the AED in strategic location so that it can be used by our countrymen. CPR and AED, if combined, result in a higher chance to revive a patient having cardiac arrest),” the cardiologist said.
He said that in this town, they have also conducted the training at the Villa Bernardino Resort in Barangay San Juan for rescue workers and barangay leaders, being the first responders to emergency situations in their community.
Resort owner and former Samal vice mayor Emilio Medina and Municipal Health Office head, Dr. Cristina Espino are very supportive of the project.
“Ginagawa na ito sa buong Pilipinas noon pang 2017 at sa February 8, gagawin natin ang tinatawag na Heart Month sa Pilar na tulad din ng Samal ay nais na magkaroon ng titulong CPR-ready municipality (We have been doing this in the whole Philippines since 2017 and on February 8, we will hold what we call Heart Month in Pilar town which, like Samal, wants to become known as a CPR-ready municipality),” Bugarin said.
“Sana buong Bataan maging (we wish that the entire Bataan will become a) CPR-ready province,” he said. (PNA)
