At 96, CPR Instructor Doesn’t Miss a Beat

NORTH CAPE MAY – “It’s a blessing just to keep moving.” Ninety-six-year-old Helen Eppehimer of Villas pertly provided that comment when asked about her 38-year career as a CPR instructor for the Lower Township Rescue Squad. 
Eppehimer’s 68-year-old daughter Naomi Nichols, an Air Force veteran and CPR instructor-partner to her mom, explained that CPR instruction is basically a family business because her father William, a World War II veteran, got Helen and her involved in the Lower Township Rescue Squad in 1980.
William died, however, this mother-daughter team continues to provide life-saving instruction to area first responders like police and firefighters, plus commercial fishermen, hotel employees, and others who need, or just desire to learn how to save lives in an emergency.
Eppehimer keeps motivated by the calls she received from prior students over the years who tell her that they used the training to save family members by “just remembering what you told us to do.” Eppehimer also recalls a time when she and her husband responded to a 911 call and found a 2-year-old baby lying face down in a swimming pool.
The child’s mother later told her that she had been on the phone “for just a minute, but a minute is all it takes,” Eppehimer said.
She added that the child had been face-down in the pool for 10 minutes, but that between her husband and her, the baby was revived. She later stopped by to see a healthy and happy “customer” who, of course, remembered nothing about what had occurred.
Eppehimer and her daughter continue to teach under the auspices of Shore Medical Center, Somers Point, and the American Heart Association.
Nichols estimated that last year they taught about 500 students, with no plans to slow down.
When asked how long she plans to continue her avocation, Eppehimer replied, “Till I can’t get up the steps anymore.”
To contact Jim McCarty, email jmccarty@cmcherald.com.