Imagine for a moment that a traveler had a medical emergency nearby. Would you know how to help? 

If not, take advantage of Heart Month in February – the perfect time to get up to speed on important resources right here at the airport.

Our Portland Airport Fire & Rescue team offers classes in CPR and how to use an automated external defibrillator, also called an AED. If you haven’t used one before, the portable electronic device automatically diagnoses life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias and treats them through defibrillation, allowing the heart to reestablish an effective rhythm. While training is temporarily paused due to coronavirus, they hope to return to in-person classes later this year.

Even if you’re not trained in CPR, anyone can use an AED – you just follow the simple audio and visual commands on the machine. To help you know where to find an AED in case of emergency, take a moment to familiarize yourself with this map of AED locations in the airport.

Remember, more than 360,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur each year in the United States. Immediate CPR and use of an AED can more than double a victim’s chance of survival.