Are you CPR certified, or have you ever had your CPR license? You may think only doctors, paramedics and professions who handle children, the elderly or sick individuals need to know CPR. That?s not the case, though. Everyone should understand how CPR works and be certified in case of an unexpected emergency that could occur at anytime, anywhere. You don?t want to wait until it is too late to go through CPR training to receive your license.

In most cases, during your early education you receive some CPR training in health class. You might think this is enough to help you get by, but you would be wrong. CPR techniques change, and you could be out of practice if you have not administered CPR recently or gone through the training recently. That?s why it is so important to stay on top of CPR certification every single year.

Throughout any given year, around 12 million people in the United States receive their CPR licenses from the American Heart Association. Although this is a very impressive number of individuals, not all remember or truly learn how to administer CPR when it is needed. In fact, around 70 percent of people living in the United States couldn?t administer CPR if they really needed to. A statistic like that is much too high for something as important as CPR.

When someone is in critical condition and in need of CPR, there changes for living increase drastically if someone near them can probably save them. For example, if someone goes into cardiac arrest, there chances of survival can triple if CPR is performed correctly immediately. If this is not the case, there chances decrease, especially if they have to wait for emergency vehicles and paramedics to arrive to handle the situation.

So, how likely is it that you or someone near you could have a heart attack or go into cardiac arrest suddenly? The chances are actually higher than you might imagine. In the United States alone there are around 750,000 people who have a heart attack in any given year. Sometimes these heart attacks are not critical cases. However, others can die from having a sudden heart attack. Around 15 percent of people who experience heart attacks die.

Knowing the symptoms of a heart attack is one way to help get in front of the incident. That way, even if the heart attack is not caught early on, you can backtrack and consider the symptoms in order to treat the person if there are no first responders available. Unfortunately, not many people know all of the symptoms of a heart attack. In fact, only around 27 percent of people can list multiple symptoms of a heart attack. The majority of people simply know that chest pain is a clear indication of a heart attack.

Another reason it is important to attend CPR certification courses is the opportunity to learn the signs of a heart attack and other sudden diseases. You can stay more prepared for anything that may happen to those around you while you are out. You may be presented with the opportunity to save someone?s life before emergency vehicles are able to arrive and respond to the incident. In these CPR courses, you will also learn about different tools and different skillsets that can make administering CPR and saving someone?s life even easier.

For example, you will learn what an AED is and how to use it in an emergency situation. If you know how to successfully find and use an AED in a critical scenario, you help increase the chances that the person will survive. Statistics show that when it comes to heart attacks, someone?s chances for living are doubled with the use of an AED by bystanders. Heart experts believe around 522 people’s lives would be saved every year from AED placement and usage.

When was the last time you received or renewed your CPR license? If it has been more than two years, it is time to get recertified for your CPR license. Let us know about your experience with CPR or emergency situations in the comments.