Rescue breathing and the Heimlich are important because they are skills you need to know in order to save a life. Imagine you are in a small village where you and about 5 other people are shopping. Someone is eating a grape and starts choking on one. Nobody else knows the Heimlich but you. You start to perform the Heimlich and you manage to get the grape out. You just saved someone's life. An example of rescue breathing is when you are in a mall. say a small part of it looking for a loaf of bread. Somone starts having a heart attack... they go into cardiac arrest and there are no paramedics around. you perform CPR with 2 rescue breaths and save the person's life. These are some examples to show you why rescue breathing and the Heimlich are important