‘Save a Dollar, Save a Life’ at NAPA Thursday

Houston Fire Department, in partnership with the NAPA store in Houston at Big Lake Road and Parks Highway, will host a "Save a Dollar, Save a Life" event in which participants can spend two to three minutes learning Hands-Only CPR for free in exchange for a discount on their purchases.

The Houston Fire Department will offer this free cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, training from noon to 2 p.m., Dec. 6 at the NAPA store in Houston, at Parks Highway and Big Lake Rd. Emergency responders will be participating, offering to train as many people in Hands Only CPR as possible. Join us and learn how to save a life, and receive a discount on anything purchased at NAPA at the same time. This is not a certifying course, only an awareness class to teach the essentials of Hands Only CPR so it does not take the four to six hours of a full CPR class.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death nationally and locally, with an estimated 630,000 deaths per year in the United States. Several hundred cardiac arrest victims are treated throughout the Mat-Su Valley each year by the emergency medical services systems. The prompt delivery of CPR more than doubles a cardiac arrest victim’s chance of survival by helping maintain vital blood flow to the heart and brain.

“Over 90 percent of people who die from cardiac arrest never received CPR,” said Captain Christian Hartley of the Houston Fire Department, “Sometimes, this is because a person is afraid of doing so wrong or not remembering how to perform CPR. We hope by offering this class to people at no cost that we can increase the number of people who feel comfortable doing CPR on someone who needs it.”

By increasing the number of adults trained in “Hands Only” CPR in the community, the survival rate of cardiac victims also will increase, he said.