Metra riders get CPR training Thursday

Metra riders will get a life and death experience Thursday as the agency collaborates with the American Heart Association and Northwestern Medicine to give first-aid training.

Riders can learn CPR and how to use automated external defibrillators from 6:30 to 9 a.m. at several downtown and suburban Metra stations. The sessions are brief and designed for commuters on the go.

There are 300 defibrillators on Metra trains. The devices give an electric shock to the heart to re-establish a normal rhythm in cases of cardiac arrest.

More than 380,000 cardiac arrests occur outside of hospitals in the U.S. each year.

Metra locations offering training include Arlington Heights, Wheaton and Chicago's Millennium, LaSalle Street and Union stations as well as Ogilvie Transportation Center.