CPR Saturday offers free training to the public

Billings, MT – CPR Saturday will return in 2025 after a five-year break to once again offer free CPR training classes to the public on February 1, 2025. Free basic, non-certifying classes will be offered throughout the day beginning at 8:30 a.m., with the last class starting at 12:30 p.m. CPR Saturday will be held at the Montana State University Billings Science Building, on the second floor in rooms 201, 202 and 203.

A Narcan class provided by Riverstone Health is available for sign up at 1 p.m. Narcan training offers essential skills for responding to opioid overdoses. Billings Trauma teams will be providing short Stop the Bleed skills stations. Stop the Bleed provides basic, live-saving training in bleeding control principles which allow people to provide immediate, frontline aid until first responders are able to take over care of an injured person.

This year’s CPR Saturday is being held in honor of Mary Walser, a longtime Billings Clinic Community Training Center employee who passed away in 2024. Mary was an active member of the CPR Saturday planning team who helped train thousands of people lifesaving skills as a passionate CPR advocate.

CPR is an emergency lifesaving procedure used to revive someone who has stopped breathing or whose heart has ceased functioning. Between 75-80% of all sudden cardiac arrests happen at home, so being trained to perform CPR can mean the difference between life and death for a loved one.

• Sudden cardiac arrest results in the deaths of more than 650 adults and children each day in the United States.
• CPR provided immediately after sudden cardiac arrest can double or even triple a victim’s chance of survival.
• Survival of sudden cardiac arrest can be as high as 90 percent if treatment is administered within 4-6 minutes of the arrest.
• On average, only 24.7 percent of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims receive CPR.

If bystander CPR is not provided, a sudden cardiac arrest victim’s chances of survival falls 7 percent to 10 percent for every minute of delay until defibrillation. Few attempts at resuscitation are successful if CPR and defibrillation are not provided within minutes of collapse. With the proper knowledge and tools, everyone can save a life.

CPR Saturday is organized by a coalition of local health care and emergency response organizations, Billings Clinic, Intermountain Heath, RiverStone Health, the Billings Fire Department, American Medical Response, Montana State University Billings, and Billings Central Catholic Schools HOSA club.

To learn CPR, register for CPR Saturday at www.billingscprsaturday.com.