At the ready:

Imagine you are at home and your children are laughing in the living room while you are in the kitchen, washing dishes or cooking dinner, humming to yourself. Suddenly the laughing stops, you hear a scream and as you enter the room a member of your family in on the floor unresponsive. Do you know how to respond?

According to the American Heart Association (AHA), 88 percent of cardiac arrests happen at home, which means the victim could be a child, spouse, parent or friend.

Merely getting CPR training can mean the difference between life and death for a friend or family member.

The AHA estimates that effective bystander CPR can double or triple the victim’s chance of survival. However, the association states that only about 32 percent of cardiac arrest victims receive CPR from a bystander and less than 8 percent of the victims who suffer outside of a hospital survive.

Sudden cardiac arrest is not the same as a heart attack. The AHA states that sudden cardiac arrest occurs when electrical impulses in the heart become rapid or chaotic, which causes the heart to suddenly stop beating. A heart attack occurs when the blood supply to part of the heart muscle is blocked, which may cause cardiac arrest as a result of the blockage.

The Centers for Disease Control estimate that 715,000 Americans have a heart attack each year. About 600,000 people in the U.S. die from heart disease, which constitutes one in every four deaths in the country. The CDC stated that 47 percent of sudden cardiac deaths occur outside of a hospital, which the organization posits is due to people not acting on early warning signs of heart disease.

In honor of Heart Health Month, St. Joseph Medical Center offered free CPR classes every Saturday of February. Cindy Hagen, education coordinator for St. Joseph, said the hospital is offering free lipid profiles every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 7 to 10 a.m. They are also offering blood draws to check cholesterol levels and EKGs at discounted rates.

Hagen said the response from the community has been great since the hospital began the Heart Health Month programs several years ago. Last Saturday, she said there were a total of 24 people who attended the classes. This weekend looks like it will be about the same, but there is room for a couple more students to sign up.

If you miss the window to take the free class, Hagen said interested people should call her to ask about setting up another class. Other courses offered through the hospital include a first aid class that is scheduled closer to the start of the annual cherry harvest.

“Just being able to know what to do to help will give someone a better chance of survival,” Hagen said. “The faster they start [CPR], the better.”