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Dec. 28, 2007
When minutes matter most
Basic first-aid and CPR skills could help save someone's life.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
A young child has fallen off a play structure. His leg is bleeding badly. He is unconscious. What do you do? This is one of the scenarios with which the Jewish Independent staff was presented at a day-long first-aid course that covered the basics of CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation).
Alon Hendel, director and head instructor of Community Care First-Aid, came to the Independent loaded with CPR dummies (adult and baby), an ink board, first-aid manuals, an automated external defibrillator and more than enough enthusiasm and information to hold our attention for the entire day.
Before he became a Canadian Red Cross instructor, Hendel was the head co-ordinator and instructor in the army medical school of the Israel Defence Forces, where he trained combat medics. After his time in the army, he trained medical personnel and volunteers for Magen David Adom, Israel. His extensive experience in training people was evident, as he managed to break down complicated concepts, such as how the how the lungs, heart and brain relate, and make them understandable to a very lay audience.
Hendel has a bachelor of medical science degree from the University of Sydney, Australia, and soon will be furthering his medical education at the University of British Columbia. According to its website, Community Care First-Aid was "established with the intent of exposing first-aid and CPR skills to people in the community in order to increase awareness and understanding about these essential life saving techniques." Hendel's philosophy, and that of Community Care and the Red Cross, is that the more people with first-aid and CPR skills, the more likely that there will be a rapid, appropriate response to an individual who experiences a life-threatening emergency. To facilitate the spread of this knowledge, Hendel will hold sessions at your home, office or community centre, if you can rally between six and 12 participants.
Hendel relies on what he calls a novel approach to learning, one that focuses on understanding, rather than the memorization of a sequence of steps. This was probably one of the more fascinating aspects of the Independent's one-day course. Hendel took a lot of time to explain how to identify an emergency, why first-aiders should proceed in a certain way in an emergency and what goals first-aiders are trying to achieve when helping someone. He allowed for questions, discussion and some kibitzing.
The course provided an overview of how the body works and covered the skills needed to recognize, prevent and respond to choking, airway, breathing and cardiovascular emergencies in adults, children and babies. The first-aider's role is to recognize an emergency, call 911 and act according to their skill and comfort level – but they must act. As little as four to six minutes without oxygen can cause brain damage, and it generally takes more time than that for an ambulance to arrive on the scene. The first-aider's job is to help until qualified emergency medical personnel arrive and take over.
Obviously, there is a ton of information to know and, while each scenario requires a similar process, a first-aider must use their common sense and knowledge to the best of their ability. Taking a course should be everyone's priority – among other things, it will give you an idea of how to respond in the type of scenario with which this article began.
Community Care First-Aid offers more in-depth courses than the Independent took, including comprehensive first-aid and CPR techniques to respond to emergencies in the workplace or home, such as severe injuries like broken bones, burns, head and spine injuries and massive bleeding. We only focused only on simpler – though no less terrifying – situations at the Independent. Those of us who took the course are now certified in what is called "emergency first-aid/CPR level C." Hopefully, none of us will have to use the skills we acquired, but it's comforting to know that we could potentially save someone's life... perhaps even our own.
To organize a group course, register to a planned Community Care First-Aid course or for more information, contact Community Care at 604-677-1461, [email protected] or through www.communitycarefirstaid.com.
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