Crystal Krautkremer – a Park Rapids firefighter and registered nurse – is dedicated to teaching the life-saving skills of CPR and advanced life support skills.
She’s an American Heart Association (AHA) instructor and offers Heartsaver CPR/AED, Heartsaver Pediatric First Aid/CPR/AED, BLS, ACLS, PEARS and PALS courses.
“A lot of acronyms, but it’s various levels of life support, whether it's basic life support or advanced cardiac life support,” she explained.
Recognizing a need for local instruction, Krautkremer launched her business, Abstract Heroes LLC.
“I feel it’s super important, and I love teaching, so it went hand in hand,” she said. “I feel like more people need to know how to do CPR because that’s going to be the patient’s first line of survival – that immediate CPR to keep their heart pumping, to keep them alive longer to get to a better level of care.”
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Classes are open to all ages and skills. Thus far, Krautkremer’s youngest student was 7, who was able to successfully do compressions on an adult mannequin. “The AHA recognizes that if anybody can do compressions, then they can do CPR,” she said.
Krautkremer’s business officially became certified LLC in Minnesota in July, but she’s been an AHA instructor for almost three years. She’s taught CPR and First Aid classes through community education.
Courses can be taken by health care staff, day care providers, budding babysitters, Scouts or the layperson. She recently taught CPR to a church group. On another occasion she brought her lessons to a family home and worked with four sisters.
Abstract Heroes offers a variety of CPR disciplines, both beginning and advanced. Krautkremer hopes taking a class replaces fear of the unknown with the power to help someone.
“Yeah, it’s going to be a scary situation, but hopefully the training kicks in and takes away the fear so that you can just act and give that person the best chance of survival,” she said.
Krautkremer provides individual or group classes.
“Abstract means ‘existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence.’ So I feel that abstractly, everyone with the knowledge to help other people, even without doing a thing, is a hero. Hence, the name for my business,” Krautkremer said.
To learn more or contact Krautkremer, visit Abstract Heroes’ Facebook page at www.facebook.com/abstractheroescpr.
