Learn the signs. Save a life.
Free 15-minute courses that teach you to recognize a medical emergency — and act fast. No account needed. Certificate included.
How it works
Learn
Read a short course — 10 to 15 minutes, plain language, written for the moment you are actually in.
Pass the quiz
Five questions, mostly real situations. Get four right and you pass. Retake it as many times as you like.
Get your certificate
Type your name and download an awareness certificate with a verification code. Free, no account.
Share it
Send the course to one person who would want to know. That is the whole ask.
Pick the track that fits your life
Courses are grouped by who you are worried about. Take a whole track, or take one course tonight. A course you finish counts everywhere it appears.
Start here. Three courses that make every other course work.
3 courses · not started Everyday EmergenciesThe twelve emergencies most likely to happen in front of you.
12 courses · not started Caring for Aging ParentsOlder bodies send different signals. Learn to read them.
8 courses · not started Protecting Young KidsThe signs that mean go now, and the ones that mean it is okay to wait.
11 courses · not started Mental Health & CrisisHow to ask the hard question, and what to do with the answer.
4 courses · not started Pregnancy & PostpartumThe warning signs of pregnancy and the year that follows.
2 courses · not startedWhy minutes matter
About 7 in 10
out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen at home — so the person most likely to be standing there is family.
Source: American Heart Association
2× to 3×
better odds of surviving cardiac arrest when a bystander starts CPR right away instead of waiting.
Source: American Heart Association
Every 40 seconds
someone in the United States has a stroke — where the treatment that works best is the treatment that comes fastest.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Why you can trust these courses
Every course on this site is written from the published lay-rescuer guidance of the organizations that set it — the American Heart Association, the American Red Cross, the CDC, SAMHSA, ACOG, and the American Academy of Pediatrics — and every course names its sources at the bottom of the page, with links, so you can check the original. We teach recognition and bystander response only: what to notice, and what to do before help arrives. We never teach diagnosis or treatment, we never publish a number without naming where it came from, and we would rather leave something out than get it wrong. If you spot an error, there is a link on every course to tell us.
SignsToSave is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of the organizations whose published guidance it cites.
Questions people ask
Is it really free?
Yes — all 33 courses, all quizzes, all certificates. There is no paywall, no upsell, no ads, and nothing is sold. The only things we ever ask for are optional: an email address if you want a single refresher reminder a year from now, and that you share a course with someone you love.
Is this real certification?
No, and we will never pretend otherwise. SignsToSave certificates are awareness certificates. They are not CPR or first-aid certification, they carry no professional or workplace validity, and they do not satisfy any compliance requirement. If you want accredited, hands-on training — and you should, especially for CPR — take a class from the American Red Cross or the American Heart Association.
Who writes this?
SignsToSave is an independent public-health education project. The courses are written from the published lay-rescuer guidance of the American Heart Association, American Red Cross, CDC, SAMHSA, ACOG, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, and each course cites the specific organizations behind it. We are not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them.
How current is it?
Courses follow the guidance published by those organizations, and guidance evolves. Every course lists its sources so you can go to the original at any time. If a course and your doctor — or the 911 dispatcher on the phone with you — disagree, they win. Found something out of date? Use the "Spot an error?" link on any course.
Can my workplace or school use it?
Yes, freely. Share the links, assign the courses, put them in a newsletter, print the pages. You do not need our permission and there is nothing to pay. One caution: because these are awareness courses, they do not satisfy OSHA, licensing, childcare, or any other compliance training requirement. Use an accredited provider for that.
The person most likely to be there is you
Fifteen minutes today. A different outcome on a day you can't predict.