SLO County health care district is training people to use defibrillators. How to sign up
Besides providing 24/7 ambulance service to residents and visitors to a 300-plus-square-mile area of northwestern San Luis Obispo County, the Cambria Community Healthcare District (CCHD) has recently been conducting community outreach to demonstrate the use of automated external defibrillators.
An AED is used to help those experiencing sudden cardiac arrest.
It’s a sophisticated, yet easy-to-use medical device that can analyze the heart’s rhythm and, if necessary, deliver an electrical shock, or defibrillation, to help the heart re-establish an effective rhythm.
CCHD has conducted training sessions at the Joslyn Adult Recreation Center in Cambria and for the Cambria Lions Club Cambria Pickleball by the Sea club and students of Leffingwell High School.
The presentations covered hands-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), calling 9-1-1 while using the AED and explaining differences between real-life CPR and what Hollywood portrays. The student training was performed in conjunction with the Cambria Fire Department.
It included health care district CPR instructor Paul Butterfield, paramedics Curtis Reid and Tim Nurge and emergency medical technician Jeremy Kantner, as well as Cambria Fire Captain Emily Torlano and others.
The training permitted several students to become certified in CPR, helping them in their pursuits of health care career education at Cuesta College and beyond.
With Highway 1 still closed near Gorda, it is important to remember that CCHD provides ambulance service to southern Monterey County through a contract with American Medical Response.
To assure prompt transport, the health care district works closely with air ambulance services in San Luis Obispo and Monterey counties and participates in regular interagency training with helicopter services, the Cambria Fire Department, Cal Fire and California State Parks.
Upcoming training dates will be posted on the CCHD website, cambria-healthcare.org.
Organizations in Cambria or San Simeon that would like to set up AED training sessions should call CCHD administrator Tim Benes at 805-927-8304 or e-mail operations@cambria-healthcare.org.