What would you do?

In the event of an emergency what would you do? Would you panic, freeze up, remain calm and assess the situation? These are questions we should ask ourselves. Some may be thinking, “Oh he has to be talking about a major disaster, there is no way he means basic first aid” and that is not the case at all. I am in fact referring to all scenarios, minor, moderate, major/critical and life threatening situations; where some may require a decision on who receives care even though it means the other person could die.

I talk about this because I just finished taking PE 235 - First Aid CPR and Safety Education. Over the years I have taken the basic CPR course which really doesn’t educate people, in my opinion based on the companies I’ve used in the past. Where this course taught me not only CPR, it expanded my knowledge on how to react in a variety of situations and how to prioritize.

Roughly about five years ago I was trained and became a part of a local nationally recognized organization, C.E.R.T. (Community Emergency Response Team). The training received was similar to the recent course I took here at FC [PE 235] yet with more focus on how to triage situations, as well as first aid and basic search and rescue.

So now back to the question…how would you respond to an emergency situation and are you prepared? If a young infant were chocking what is the first thing one should do? You witness an accident, three people are injured; one has an open fracture, second has a laceration to the head that is bleeding with glass in their eye, third victim is unconscious and not breathing. Who would you treat first? Realize once you begin CPR you cannot stop unless you are too exhausted or first responders arrive to take over.

Until next time!

Joey McIntosh

“Be Prepared... the meaning of the motto is that a scout must prepare himself by previous thinking out and practicing how to act on any accident or emergency so that he is never taken by surprise.” – Robert Baden-Powell