Could You Save A life?

[Weird Harold]

I asked the question on the General Forum and I know most of you don't go there, but please make an exeption for this thread.

https://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=239652

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I learned the Basics when I was 14. I think I still remember it. Ofcourse, in a crisis situation, people tend to freeze up and forget learning 1+1=2, but I USUALLY tend to switch into some Cold And Efficient Mode, and do what I need to do, and then later get a reaction when I sit there shaking, looking back and thinking "whow, did I manage to do all that?"

 

[SensualCealy]

Read it and answered it Harold!
Good thread,
Cealy

 

[Lauren Hynde]

I'm a licensed lifeguard, although in the one summer I actively worked as one, I thankfully didn't have to make full use of my training.

 

[Weird Harold]

Read it and answered it Harold!
Good thread,
Cealy

I noticed, and thanks.

What shocked me most about the radio piece about Save A life Foundation is that there are places in the US where basic First Aid and CPR are not requirements for Police and Fire personnel.

 

[SensualCealy]

That is just being very very ignorant of what should be included in the training.

Paramedics arent always availible for a situation if they are all previously at another incident. Do you just let the person die- I think not!
Cealy

 

[minsue]

Red Cross certified in First Aid and in CPR, but my certificatioin lapsed years ago. Thanks for the nudge to take the refresher course.

 

[Weird Harold]

That is just being very very ignorant of what should be included in the training.

Paramedics arent always availible for a situation if they are all previously at another incident. Do you just let the person die- I think not!
Cealy

Yet that is exactly what prompted the Save A Life Foundtion. According to the radio piece, something like 40% of communities don't have any requirement for First Aid and CPR qualifications for their Fire and Police departments!

That goes beyond ignorant and verges on criminal negligence, IMHO. But, apparently, there are insurance and liability issues tht work against a common sense approach and passage of "Good Samaritan" Laws to protect people who aren't EMTs from lawsuits.

 

[oggbashan]

Posted on other thread.

My youngest daughter trained with St John's.

At university she signed up to do First Aid at Football Matches. She gets to watch her favourite soccer team - free, to meet the players, and she met her husband while he was also doing First Aid at the matches.

There can be unseen advantages to learning First Aid.

Og.

PS. I approve of her choice of husband. He's a great son -in-law.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I was a lifeguard, like Lauren. I had to pull one kid out of the deep water, and when I got him out of the pool he was laughing so hard I thought he'd been play-drowning and I walked away in disgust. He hadn't, he was just hysterical with panic. Luckily the other guards were around by that time and no one noticed me giving the cold shoulder to the kid. It took me a long time to calm down enough to realize what had happened.

At the same time, I didn't even notice when my own son started choking on a piece of meat at a cub scout cookout. Luckily the scout leader did and Heimliched him before I could even figure out what was going on. Scary.

---dr.M.

 

[lewdandlicentious]

Yep, have had extensive training, being in the army gives you that.

Yep, unfortunately I have had to use it. I came across a RTA a couple of years ago, 2 bikers had hit a car head on.

The bike rider was already dead, the amount of blood on the floor beside him told me that.

The pillion rider was found under a roadside hedge 80 feet away, minus one leg, which was found in the car they hit.

We did the best we could for him but he died in the ambulance soon after it arrived.

Also, some months ago, an old fella that lived across the road from me had a heart attack. I was first on the scene this time, and had to perform mouth to mouth and compressions until help arrived, some 10 minutes later.

Unfortunately he died. We think he was dead before he hit the floor.

The main point is, you don't know when you'll be called upon to help like this. At least I (we) tried because we could.

It must be a terrible feeling to not know what to do, and have someone die.

 

[Wildcard Ky]

I have saved a life. March 4, 1994. A car veered across the interstate and hit the car in front of me head on. Both were doing about 70 MPH. I swerved and avoided the wreck. I went to check on the other drivers. The lady that came across the lanes died instantly, massive head trauma. The lady that she hit was alive, but in very bad shape. Both legs and one arm badly broken. Nasty head wound and an open chest wound.

She was unconscious, and having great difficulty breathing. I got into the car with her and held her head up and back to keep the airway clear. As I did this, it expanded her chest cavity and held open the wound. The wound being held open prevented her lungs from filling up with blood and fluid and allowed her to keep breathing. She was airlifted from the accident scene after EMS arrived. I went to the hospital the next day to see how things were. Her doctor told me that if I hadn't held her airway and the wound open that she would have died within 5 minutes. She basically would have drown in her blood. She wound up spending over a year in the hospital and in rehab.

It was one of the most life changing events I've ever had.

 

[M.A.Thompson]

I work as an RN in the busy ICU of a level II Trauma center. Our staff is required to re-certify in BLS (Basic Life Support) and ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) every other year. I have been involved in more codes than I care to remember but the ones that stay with me are not the saves, but the ones we lose. Oh the stories I could tell.

But on to the subject...

I have only been called upon to use my skills outside of work once. A few years back I was in Disney World of all places, going down the escalator of the main concourse of the Contemporary Hotel when the thing started to log jam. To my horror, I notice this old guy had collapsed at the bottom and people were trying to jump over him and stuff. So, as I'm making my way down I'm going over shit in my head, the basics, the A,B,C's, Airway, Breathing, Circulation, things that come natural at work but not on an escalator of the Grand Concourse of the Contemporary Hotel with my wife and kids in tow. Just as I get to the bottom and am ready to get to work on this guy these Disney folks are on him like that, Bam!!! I identified myself as a medical professional - as we are trained to do in BLS - to offer my assistance but they refused.

I always knew I could save a life in the confines of my work environment. Though I pray to God it never happens again, I believe I could do it in the real world as well.

 

[wishfulthinking]

Yep, I'm another qualified lifeguard, but only in the UK, and thankfully I didn't have to do CPR, mostly cuts, stings, bruises and screaming kids etc.

I don't know how I would react in a real emergency (as much as I would like to think handling 100s of screaming kids IS an emergency) I think the first aid training gives me a certain confidence that at the very least I would know what to do, and take charge of a bad situation.

I read that joke of yours Harold about the snake bite on the penis, and thought it was very funny! But I don't think you're supposed to suck out the venom anymore...

 

[Weird Harold]

I read that joke of yours Harold about the snake bite on the penis, and thought it was very funny! But I don't think you're supposed to suck out the venom anymore...

That wasn't my joke -- I tell a different version of that joke when I bother to tell it.

I honestly don't know the "current and up to date information" on treating snake-bite -- I do know that Snake Bite Kits that contain suction cups and razor blades are still readily available and I carry one when I'm hiking in the desert.

The issue of "current and up to date" procedures is a fairly important point though. I haven't actually attended a class to "keep my certifcation current" for 15 years now, because except for Junior and Senior Life Saving course, I've never had any training that resulted in an "official certification" to keep current.

Still, the lack of "qualification" in an official sense doesn't reduce my confidence in my ability to do what is necessary in any situation from a spider-bite or bee-sting to a multi-car pile-up in the middle of nowhere.

"Saving a Life" is more about having the confidence to act in an emergency situation instead of panicing than it is about a pile of certification certificates. The more you know, the more you can confidently do, but most emergencies only require small actions and remaining calm.

For example, before I ever had any First Aid Training at all, my younger brother decided that the Crystal Drano under the sink looked tasty and tried to eat some. I don't remember how or when I learned it, but I knew that there were instructions on the can as to what should be done -- I read them and forced a bottle of Realemon concentrated lemon juice into him to neutralize the Drano before it could do any permanent damage.

Time tested and old-fashioned procedures -- like sucking the poison from a snakebite -- might not be "current and up-to-date" but most of them are sufficient to save a life and are generally better than doing nothing or waiting for someone with a "certificate of qualification" to take charge.

 

[Sabledrake]

CPR and First Aid certifications are both required for my job. I also took a 6-week course to become a member of the Community Emergency Response Team, which trains people how to react and help support the police and firefighters in times of disaster -- earthquakes, terrorist attacks, etc. I really recommend it, if your area offers the training.

Sabledrake