Rural residents facing slow emergency response times learn life-saving skills

In rural Gallatin County, where emergency response times can be upwards of 30 minutes, residents are learning CPR and getting AED’s installed in rural fire stations so that they now have life-saving measures a little closer to where they are.

“80 percent of the calls that were coming out of the area were medical calls. They weren't fire. They were emergency medical calls,” says Central Valley Fire District Trustee Rob Holt.

Holt lives on the outskirts of the district and he noticed response times are too long.

“For someone who has heart issues, it was unacceptable,” says Holt.

So he got his neighbors together to get CPR certified and raise money to install an AED device at the volunteer fire station off Springhill Road.

“Up 20, residential neighbors for the Reese Creek area. and put them through a certified head stop the bleed class through Central Valley Fire,” says Holt.

William Roberts is the Vice President of the Central Valley Firefighters Association. He helps train people on CPR and says preforming CPR before first responders arrive is a life-saving skill.

“A bystander starts CPR and an AED is available and a shock is delivered, their chance of survival is 39%,” says Roberts.

Roberts says having more residents know how to use the AED and perform CPR is another tool for the first responders.

Holt and Roberts say their goal is to get other rural communities to use these lifesaving tools

“It would be great to see a portable AED at every one of those rural fire departments for the public use,” says Holt.

“We want to raise awareness and give people the tools to watch out for each other,” says Roberts.

Central Valley Fire District says they offer CPR training to anyone who wants to learn.

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