Medical emergencies can happen at any moment, and most often, they happen at home.

Hays Med wants community members to know what to do if someone is in cardiac arrest.  The hospital recently offered free C-P-R training classes.  This was the 12th consecutive year for the project.

Nearly 200 participants, age 8 and older, learned the basics from 30 certified volunteer instructors in the Center for Health Improvement.

This year, according to  Hays Med program coordinator Deb McClaren, the event drew a lot of grandparents and Girl Scouts.  The grandparents, she says, spend a lot of time with their grandchildren and the Girls Scouts are preparing for their first babysitting jobs.

Funding from DeBakey Heart Institute and the Hays Med Foundation provides the students with CPR kits that include an instructional  DVD and practice dummy.

Participants also learned the Heimlich maneuver for choking victims.

You can see more tonight on Street Beat Eagle Community TV Channel 14.