[faithfulfrank]

Good for you Donna! Thanks for your service.

I too feel that I have an ethical duty to act.....but not a legal one. here in NY at least, I legally have a duty to act only when I am "on duty", working at the firehouse. If a person is a volunteer, they have a duty to act once they acknowledge that they are responding.

I do not want to get off subject, but I sometimes think that through the years, we instructors have somewhat missed the mark. Studies have shown that many folks have CPR cards in their wallet, but when witnessing a full arrest, many of those card carrying CPR folks will still walk right by and not do CPR.

So, what went wrong??

Afterwards when asked, some say that they did not do anything because their card expired a month ago.....or they forgot how to do it perfect....or they were afraid of being sued.....or afraid of "getting something".

Perhaps what we should be telling folks is that when a person is not breathing, or they do not have an airway, and do not have a pulse.......they are dead. You cannot hurt a dead person. You cannot make them any "deader". I do not wish to be crude, but if I'm dead, and you know how to do CPR, I don't care if your card expired a month ago. Please, still do CPR on me and give me a chance.

Folks, CPR is EASY. They have made it much easier then in years past. Doing anything is better then nothing. Even if you do just compressions, it is better then nothing. I carry a simple barrier device on my keyring so I have nothing to worry about.. If you can't remember weather it is 15 or 30 compressions, then 2 breaths....IT'S OK. There are no CPR police.

Even if you just learn CPR to help a loved one.....you should still learn it. The only thing worse then losing a loved one is wondering if you could have made a difference.

Please forgive my long post.

Frank D.