CPR with Mia aims to teach the lifesaving skill to Black, Hispanic, diverse communities

SHREVEPORT/BOSSIER CITY, La. (KSLA) — A Bossier City business owner is dedicated to helping others save lives in the community.

Her name is Mia Law. And she’s paying close attention to a very special cause.

Law has been teaching CPR to the Shreveport/Bossier City community since 2017.

While she is an expert now, the teacher had to learn somewhere.

“I actually got into training after I was ill-prepared for a situation where I needed to perform CPR,” Law recalled. “I had always taken CPR only because I had to for work. But in that moment when I had to perform CPR, I was not prepared.”

That eye-opening experience pushed Law to touch up on some of her old skills. But she also was inspired to play a more helpful role in her community.

“After that, it peaked my interest in becoming a CPR instructor.”

And CPR with Mia came to life.

Over the past six years, she’s been teaching everyone — including children — about the importance of being prepared when the moment calls for it.

“You want to be prepared in those moments. It’s better to be prepared and not needed than to be needed and not prepared.”

As Law has done her part preparing her community to save lives, she’s found a new focus.

“It’s my goal to help the African-American community, Hispanic community and diverse community.”

Black and Hispanic people are 26% less likely to receive CPR at home and up to 57% less likely to receive CPR in public, an American Heart Association study shows.

“I’ve heard that people in the African-American community say that they are afraid or say that they don’t want to perform it for various reasons,” Law said.

“It’s my goal to make sure that they are confident with performing CPR in the case that something were to happen to a family member, a co-worker or even someone in the grocery store. ‘Can I step in?’ Can they step in and help?”

Periodically, Law offers free CPR classes to extend the resources to anyone who might be interested. She plans on holding some more very soon.

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