I just finished reading a great guest post on “Everyday EMS Tips” by Steve Lichtenberg about teaching CPR to kids. He gives some great advice about teaching to a younger audience. But more importantly, he makes it clear that kids can be taught to save lives. This post really hit home, as I am living proof on how teaching kids to perform CPR or First Aid can really make a difference.

When I was 12 years old, I took a health class in school to get out of having to take Spanish. For 2 weeks, we learned CPR and first aid. We were also certified in the skills once we showed our instructor proficiency. To me, it was more of an excuse to goof around and pretend to make out with the CPR dummy and make people laugh. It still didn’t change the fact that I had to learn the skills in order to pass that part of the class. I actually did find the first aid part of training to be interesting. So after I passed the class, I had 2 neat cards to put on the refrigerator and show off to my parents. I never thought I would use any of those skills, especially as a child.

A couple days after I completed that class, I was riding bikes home with a couple of my friends. One of the kids that was riding with us decided to take off across traffic and was hit by a pickup truck. I watched him fly over the handlebars, hit his head on the windshield and fall off the side of the truck to the street. After a couple seconds of watching him lay motionless, I ran over to him to see if he was ok. He wouldn’t respond to me and basically laid there limp.

The lady driving the truck got out and started screaming at me to get out of the road so that she could pull him off to the side. I knew that we shouldn’t move him, although I didn’t exactly know why. I just remembered that we should keep the head still. I held his head and told the lady to call 911. This was before cell phones were popular, so there was really nothing she could do. I yelled at my friend to ride to his house that was only a block away and call instead.

Several people stopped to help, and pretty much everyone wanted to pull him out of the road. I was adamant that we couldn’t move him and I tried my best to convince the adults on scene that I was doing the right thing. It basically came down to the fact that I refused to let go of his head, so they really had no choice. I had one of my friends hold pressure with a towel on a large laceration that he sustained from the accident in attempt to control the bleeding. He too had just taken the same class.

The ambulance (the same one I work for now) arrived on scene first and took over care. I don’t remember much of what they did, but I do remember one of the crew members thanking me and saying that I did the right thing by holding his head. A couple months later, the kid returned to school. He suffered minor brain damage and a spinal fracture. He had no lasting neurological deficits and pretty much made a full recovery. I’m sure his helmet probably did more of the life-saving than anything, but It’s nice to think that I may have actually made a difference in his outcome.

So yes, I do think that kids can and should be taught to perform life saving interventions. Image how many victims of cardiac arrest would survive if we taught all high school students to perform CPR? We make them learn to use a computer and type properly on a keyboard. Why not teach them how to react in a life-threatening emergency? They may never take another CPR class for the rest of their life, but they will always have at least some of the knowledge in the back of their head. Bad CPR is always better than no CPR. I wonder if the American Heart Association has tried to approach programs that would teach young adults CPR before graduating high school?

If anyone knows of such programs, I would love to hear about it.

Of course, I explained the science behind the AHA guidelines and why they recommend fast and hard compressions. The hard part was explaining why me and most of my coworkers don’t follow them. Being a paramedic, It’s easy to explain that my focus is around ALS interventions. Being that I have plenty of BLS providers on scene with me, I don’t typically have to worry about doing CPR. However there isn’t really a good excuse as to the large number of EMS providers that just “pump and blow”. It kind of makes me wonder how much of the Heart Associations studies actually included pre-hospital cases. More importantly, it makes me wonder if it really makes a difference.

….which brings me to my next point.

It seems like every time I teach a class, whether it be CPR or an EMT class, I always find myself having the “when you get into the field” talk. There seems to be this big separation of what you learn in the classroom and what you learn on the streets. I get that there are many things that experience teaches you that a textbook just cant. But why can’t our education be more realistic? It almost seems that we do everything BUT prepare our EMT and Paramedic students for real life scenarios.

We don’t tell people in CPR classes that bagging patients for any period of time usually leads to abdominal distention and regurgitation. Sure if you “properly ventilate”, that shouldn’t happen. But throw in the “bouncing ambulance” factor and the “2 people trying to do five things” factor and you got yourself a gurney caked with used hot dogs.

We don’t seem to tell our paramedic students that Mr. Homeless on 4th street only calls 911 complaining of chest pain because he knows you will give him Morphine, a bed and a hot meal. Is it that the people writing the books are so far disconnected from pre-hospital medicine? Or do we just think it’s too “politically incorrect” to tell our students that our patients lie to us?

All I’m trying to say is that we as EMS educators and providers need to put more emphasis on teaching our students the reality of working in this field. I would like to see us try and close this gap between classroom and field learning.

Anyone beg to differ?

Now what?

Activating the 911 system for first time often scares people. The thought of loud sirens, bright lights and several strangers entering your home can make you nervous or even hesitant to call in a time of need. For these reasons, I decided to create this article in hopes that you will know what to expect and what you can do to help in the event that someone you know or love takes a turn for the worst.

Unfortunately you can not plan or schedule emergencies. They often occur when you least expect it. Staying calm and taking control of the situation will be your key to a smooth transition from the panic of the incident to definitive medical care.

If you are at home, work or a place of business, always try to use a land-line telephone. In a state of panic you are likely to forget your address. Using a cell-phone makes tracing your location difficult for 911 dispatchers.

The 911 dispatcher is going to ask you several questions. Some of which may seem time consuming or ridiculous. Just remember, be patient and answer all of the questions clearly and accurately. Your answers will assist the dispatchers in assigning a priority to the call and give the paramedics valuable pre-arrival information. Try not to rush though the conversation. There are several dispatchers on duty at all times. While one is talking to you, another is dispatching the closest ambulance.

Once you know that help is on the way, you can perform several tasks to minimize the amount of time that the emergency workers have to be on scene.

- Make sure your lights are on.

The emergency crews will be looking for signs of activity. This will make locating your house easier.

- Leave your front door open.

This will also aid in spotting your house in the event that your address is not clearly visible.

- Clear a path.

Move cars out of the driveway, unlock any gates and move items that might prevent the paramedics from moving a gurney to the scene.

- Gather medications, identification and insurance information.

Have all of this ready in a bag. By doing this, you will cut several minutes away from the time the paramedics must stay on scene. This translates into a quicker transfer to definitive care.

If there are several people standing around, assign these tasks to others. Keeping people busy and out of the way will benefit your loved-one and make the responding paramedic’s job easier.

The paramedics will likely ask several questions. Some of which you may have answered when you spoke to the 911 dispatcher. Although this may seem like wasting time, be patient. The paramedics must have a clear understanding of what is wrong so they can determine the appropriate treatment and transport destination.