TACLOBAN CITY- Close to 1,000 people attended the free Basic Life Support (BLS) Training at the Tacloban City Convention held here.
The activity was organized by the city government of Tacloban through Mayor Cristina G. Romualdez and the Philippine Heart Association, Inc.(PHAI).
The January 13 event which imparted life saving techniques was participated by city government and barangay workers as well as by tourism and restaurant industry front liners.
Mayor Romualdez spoke during the event and underscored the importance of learning the basics on BLS saying it could it could spell the difference in a life and death situation.
PHAI president Dr. Raul Lapitan said the event is part of its advocacy to teach BLS skills to lay people.
Modules used during the training included CPR or cardiopulmonary resuscitation on drowning and heart attack and a lecture and demo on the use of automatic external defibrillators (AED) for heart attack patients.
PHAI is advocating the use of AED in populated areas to increase survival of heart attack victims as it is part of the chain of CPR
According to Lapitan, CPR is no longer limited to medical practitioners.
”(Its) because 70% of cardiac arrests happens at home and usually the first responders are relatives or bystander,” he said.
Lapitan added that they are teaching the hands-only or modified CPR which do not involve mouth to mouth breathing, but requires doing proper and effective cardiac compression–basic skills needed to save life.
Dr. Alex Junia, PHAI past president said the group’s advocacy takes root from RA 10781 or “The Basic Life Support Training in Schools Act” which they successfully lobbied in Congress.
Junia said the law mandates the teaching of CPR to grades 5 to 12 using standard modules for hands only CPR.
“If we teach all students, we don’t have to do individual training because it’s already part of the curriculum. This will help propagation of CPR skills throughout the country”, Junia added
The bill, also known as the “Samboy Lim Law” was approved into law on July 17, 2016.
PHA is currently drafting a module to further implement the training to the grassroots level.
Tacloban is the third hop of the group which has already conducted similar trainings in Boracay and Iloilo.
The Philippine College of Physicians, Department of Tourism and Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center also helped brought the free training to the City. (HENRY JAMES G. ROCA/CIO)
