The American Heart Association hopes those odds will improve after Saturday, when officials host the region's first mass CPR training day. Training will be offered 8 a.m.-noon in Christian Brothers University Thomas Center.
Instruction is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required.
Similar events will be in more than 100 communities. Nationally organizers hope to train an additional 50,000 Americans. The training is part of heart association efforts to strengthen what it calls the chain of survival. CPR is one link. It provides an emergency bridge to keep oxygen flowing to a patient's brain before emergency personnel arrive with more sophisticated medication and equipment to get the person's heart pumping normally again.