Newtown Visiting Nurses Association (VNA) and Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corp (NVAC) are teaming up to bring community CPR classes to Newtown. The first class on Saturday, July 19, was completely full. All 18 spots were taken within a few days of the formal announcement. The next class, planned for Saturday, August 9, is almost full, too.

Liz Cain, a longtime member of NVAC, along with Tom Hanlon, another longtime member of NVAC, led the class. The session lasted about an hour, just long enough for community members to have a basic understanding of hands-only, adult basic CPR, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and how to properly use an AED, or automated external defibrillator, device.

Cain began the class by explaining it was hands-only CPR, stressing that mouth-to-mouth should only be performed if the person is “actually your family and somebody you would get that close to anyway.”

Cain said it is important to point someone out directly and ask them to call 911 due to the bystander effect, or the passing of responsibility onto others in a group setting.

“Our goal here is to recognize an emergency, spring into action because if you do nothing, nothing changes,” she said, adding, “CPR is gonna prolong the life, the AED is gonna save the life.”

Following a brief introduction, Cain and Hanlon played the instructional DVD from the American Heart Association that demonstrated how to properly use the CPR kit that was handed out at the beginning of class, how to properly do CPR, how to check if someone needs CPR, and how to perform the Heimlich maneuver for a choking victim.

After the video, Cain and Hanlon began a demonstration. Cain explained that on a real human, the hands should be placed on the nipple line. She showed the class the heel of her hand and then wrapped her other hand over it. She then pushed on the NVAC’s CPR mannequins and told the class that to do proper CPR, the chest needs to be pushed down about two inches, and then rise back up to the hands.

A few students asked some questions, like if ribs often break during CPR, to which Hanlon responded yes. Another student asked if drowning victims should be dried off before placing AED paddles, to which Cain and Hanlon both said yes.

Someone else asked if people performing CPR should check for a pulse. Cain said not typically, as sometimes people can mistake their own pulse for the other person’s, or not be able to feel a slow heartbeat.

Students and Cain then briefly discussed songs that have the right beats per minute to perform CPR to, the most famous being “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees. The American Heart Association has a Spotify playlist titled “Don’t Drop The Beat” that has been updated through this year with 195 songs on it, including recent hits like “Please, Please, Please” by Sabrina Carpenter and “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan.

Then, the class began practicing on their own CPR mannequins, or Minni Annes, as the American Heart Association calls them. The Minni Annes have a built-in clicker to help people know they are pushing hard enough.

Students were, at first, shocked at how hard they had to push to activate the clicker. Not many clicks were heard at first, and many thought their clickers were broken.

Cain went around to demonstrate on a few of the Minni Annes, and the clicking commenced shortly afterwards. Once students realized how much pressure it took to actually perform CPR, the room became an orchestra of Minni Anne clicks.

After a few minutes of practice, the class ended. Chris Fadus, longtime member of Newtown VNA and manager of the VNA Thrift Shop, explained her recent encounter with CPR at Edmond Town Hall where she instructed friends of Andrew Stubbs to perform CPR, which saved his life.

“I recently witnessed somebody [experiencing] cardiac arrest, and there were a lot of people around and one person stepped up, and they did CPR. And, it wasn’t right, there was no rhythm, and it was totally … spontaneous, but the man lived … After the CPR was started, the ambulance company came in and the AED was waiting there, but the man lived regardless,” Fadus said. She added, “Something is extremely better than just standing around and doing nothing, which is what most people did in that situation.”

Fadus explained Newtown recently lost its HEARTSafe Community accreditation from the American Heart Association and she wants to get it back. She mentioned that there has been so much interest in these community classes that the August 9 class is almost full, driving her and her other volunteers to consider adding a day in September.

Fadus added she hopes to add another class in October/November before the onset of high stress holidays. For those who are interested in learning more, call or text Fadus at 203-300-8175.

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Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.