COEUR d'ALENE - The American Heart Association has launched a statewide effort to train 3,200 junior high students to save a life with CPR. The initiative is made possible by $100,000 in funding from Regence BlueShield of Idaho.

The Have a Heart, Save a Life CPR training program came to Woodland Middle School this week.

"When someone suffers a sudden cardiac arrest, survival depends on receiving CPR quickly. This is especially true in the rural parts of our state where EMS response times might be longer," said Scott Kreiling, president of Regence BlueShield of Idaho. "By partnering with the American Heart Association on this effort, our goal is not only for more kids to learn CPR, but also to empower them to teach others. Together, we're preparing the next generation of life-savers."

Experts from the American Heart Association, the Coeur d'Alene Fire Department and Woodland Middle School led the trainings for 137 seventh-graders.

Each student also received an American Heart Association CPR Anytime Kit, which contains an inflatable CPR learning manikin, practice DVD and instructions.

After completing the training, the students' homework assignment is to take home their CPR kits - including their manikins - and train at least five family members or friends. This means that 1,430 more Coeur d'Alene-area residents, and potentially 20,000 more Idahoans, will know CPR after the students' at-home assignments. As a result, the CPR training will greatly expand the number of people who have the skills needed to save lives from sudden cardiac arrest.

Nearly 400,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur annually in the United States, and survival depends on immediately getting CPR from someone at the scene. By training more people to perform CPR we can increase the chances of someone surviving a cardiac arrest.

Unlike in heart attacks, people who suffer sudden cardiac arrest might have little or no warning, and the disorder usually causes nearly instantaneous death.

Without immediate CPR, the chance of surviving out-of-hospital cardiac arrest drops up to 10 percent for each minute that passes without defibrillation. This means that by the time EMS personnel arrive on the scene it could be too late. CPR and AED training are critical to saving lives.

"We know CPR saves lives," says Jessica Budzianowski, executive director for the American Heart Association in Boise. "More than 70 percent of Americans feel helpless to act during a cardiac emergency. Thanks to Regence BlueShield of Idaho's generous support, Idaho students and their friends and families will be empowered to take action to save a life by performing Hands-Only CPR."

A 60-second Hands-Only CPR video is available to the public at www.HandsOnlyCPR.org. For additional information, visit www.heart.org/CPR.