Farmington Hills is ramping up CPR training and access to defibrillators as it seeks certification as a HEARTSafe Community, Lt. Brian Pankow of the Farmington Hills Fire Department said during an appearance on “Live in the D.”
“Should someone have a cardiac arrest event, they have a very low chance of surviving that without some bystander intervention, sometimes as low as less than 10%,” said Pankow, who also serves as the city’s emergency manager. “But the studies have shown that if a bystander were to step in and simply do hands-only CPR, we can double or even triple their ability to survive.”
Pankow said the city has effectively been building toward the designation for three decades. The program benchmarks include training roughly 15% of residents in CPR and AED use and sustaining that effort with about 15,000 people trained annually.
“It’s a very important designation to us,” he said. “It helps first responders quite a bit to have a bystander that will help out.”
On the show, Pankow demonstrated the basics:
- Ensure the scene is safe.
- Check responsiveness with a shake and a shout.
- Call 911.
- If the person isn’t breathing or is gasping, start hands-only CPR: place hands at the center of the chest, lock elbows, and push hard and fast at 100 to 120 compressions per minute for about two minutes, then reassess.
To keep the pace, he suggested songs such as “Stayin’ Alive” or “Baby Shark.”
Pankow emphasized that current guidance prioritizes compressions. “We don’t promote the breaths anymore,” he said. “We just are concerned with the hands only.”
Residents can sign up for classes at fhgov.com/learncpr or by calling the Farmington Hills Fire Department.
To watch the segment, click on the video above.