An opportunity to save lives

Sandor Demeter and Maya Goldberg WFP Posted: 2:00 AM CST Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026

You’re out at the mall and a man collapses in front of you. You sprint into action to help him, only to find he doesn’t have a pulse. Do you know what to do? How many Manitobans could save his life with CPR or by using an automatic external defibrillator (AED)?

Making CPR and AED training routine for high-school students would go a long way toward ensuring that in a medical emergency someone knows what to do and, eventually, everyone will know what to do.

If your heart stops outside of a hospital, your chance of survival without bystander intervention is about 10 per cent. Canadians experience 60,000 cardiac arrests a year (about seven an hour), with most happening out-of-hospital, according to Canada’s Heart & Stroke Foundation.

However, CPR and the use of AEDs can more than double the chance of survival.

How often bystanders perform CPR varies across the country, ranging from 42 to 72 per cent. Unfortunately, despite the increasing presence of AEDs in the community, they are used only 13 per cent of the time (Heart & Stroke Foundation).

Manitoba passed the Defibrillators in Public Places Act in 2013. By Jan. 31, 2014, AEDs were required to be installed and registered with Shared Health in “high-traffic public places, such as gyms, arenas, community centres, golf courses, schools and airports.”

In addition, Manitoba’s Good Samaritan Protection Act was passed in 2006. The act protects those who “provide emergency assistance to those in need” from legal action should their assistance cause damage, unless they are grossly negligent. Performing CPR and using an AED would be considered reasonable actions when attending to a pulseless unconscious victim.

The World Health Organization has endorsed the “Kids Save Lives” initiative, which introduces basic life support, including CPR and AED training, to all school students. Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy and Portugal have introduced legislation to include CPR education in schools and many other European nations, while not mandating CPR education, strongly support it.

In the United States, 38 states require CPR certification for high-school graduation, according to the American Heart Association. These states include Manitoba’s two border neighbours, North Dakota and Minnesota.

In Canada, the Act Foundation organizes free CPR and AED programs in Canadian high schools. This foundation promotes a train-the-trainer model in which equipment, such as CPR mannequins, is donated to schools and teachers become certified to teach CPR to students. The school takes ownership of ongoing student CPR training.

To date, through the Act Foundation program, 21 Manitoba secondary schools have established CPR programs, resulting in 66,000 Manitoba students being trained in CPR. About 3,400 Manitoba students are trained by their teachers each year. The list of participating Manitoba schools is available at https://actfoundation.ca/about-act/our-footprint/#manitoba.

In addition, some schools offer CPR training as an elective. For example, Collège Jeanne-Sauvé, a high school in Winnipeg, offers CPR training to Grade 12 students enrolled in its post-secondary Health Care Aid program, which prepares them for health-care careers.

This is a good start; however, there is room to expand the program. The 3,400 students trained under the Act Foundation program constituted only 18 per cent of Manitoba’s approximately 19,000 Grade 12 graduates in 2024.

CPR and AED training should be built into high-school curriculums, possibly starting in Grade 10, with a refresher in Grade 12. This ensures that those who do not complete high school get trained before they leave.

It would be ideal if the Manitoba government, like other jurisdictions, drafted legislation mandating CPR and AED training for high-school students.

Imagine a Manitoba where all high-school students are empowered to save lives because they have had the opportunity to take CPR and AED training.

They could save your life.

Dr. Sandor Demeter is a Winnipeg physician and an associate professor in the College of Community and Global Health at the University of Manitoba. Maya Goldberg is a master’s student in public health in the College of Community and Global Health at the University of Manitoba.