The Good Neighbor Rescue Program: utilizing volunteers to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation in a rural community

The Good Neighbor Rescue Program utilizes volunteers who pay for their basic life support training. Acting as first responders during cardiac emergencies, they become involved in the emergency care of seriously ill patients. In the program described, they participated in saving two lives during the first two years of the program. They reduced the time for trained help to arrive at the scene in 90 percent of the emergencies. The program requires coordination of existing resources within the rural community, is inexpensive, and is heavily dependent on volunteerism. The program complements the goals of providing basic life support to cardiac victims before the arrival of an ambulance and of providing advanced life support at the scene.