YAKIMA, Wash. -- Close to 1,000 potential lifesavers attended the Great CPR Blitz in Yakima on Saturday. If they follow their instructions to pass on the training, 5,000 more people in Yakima County could learn basic CPR.

Ediucation contagion was the goal of the blitz, held at the Yakima Convention Center.

Everyone from high school students to senior citizens sat through one of four hourlong presentations that included a lecture on heart health and hands-on practice with a CPR dummy.

"At first I thought it was going to be really complicated. After taking this, it's really simple," said Lucero Manjarrez, a freshman at Davis High School. She heard about the blitz from a friend who knows Pete Orgill, the Davis teacher who helped organize the event.

"It was awesome," Manjarrez said.

Before, she said, she hadn't considered CPR something that she needed to know; it seemed more appropriate for lifeguards or those in the medical field.

The concept of providing CPR scares a lot of people, medical professionals say. The class was designed to break down that barrier by showing the simplicity of basic chest compression. Even the automatic defibrillator -- a device increasingly found in stores and other public spaces -- comes with simple instructions.

The students also learned how to breathe for a patient, but the chest compressions can suffice if the rescuer is concerned about the possibility of disease transmission.

"Everyone picked it up really well," said David Lynde, Yakima operations manager for American Medical Response ambulance service.

Yakima cardiologist Dr. David Krueger presented the lecture portion of the seminar. Besides the standard health and diet information for everyone, smokers can do the most to reduce heart risk by quitting, he said.

He said he hopes that businesses and service clubs will consider sponsoring another CPR blitz next year. Yakima County residents are considered 46 percent more likely to suffer a fatal heart attack than average state residents. That's due to a variety of
factors, including the num-ber of people who don't know CPR and the time it takes for medics to reach rural areas.

CPR should be started in the first four minutes of down time in order to preserve circulation and attempt to restore the heart's electrical, specialists say. Emergency dispatchers are trained to provide CPR instruction over the phone for those who have not taken a class.

Shannon Carlson of Gleed attended Saturday's training. She said she plans
to watch the training DVD and practice with the rescucitation dummy that participants were given.

She's never been around somebody who needed CPR, but she wants to be ready.

"If I can help somebody, I want to be a part of it," she said.

* Mark Morey can be reached at 509-577-7671 or mmorey@yakimaherald.com.