Well. not for dummies, exactly. Until a year ago (or so I’m told), the AHA offered ONE CPR certification standard. Doctor, nurse, or janitor, everyone had to qualify for the same standard to be certified.
Now they offer “Heartsaver CPR Certification for theLay Person”, a lower standard for people who are NOT medical professionals. I took the first of two of modules, CPR for adults. Next week, CPR for infants and children. I feel enormously more capable of dealing with an emergency than I did just 4 hours ago!
I work in a hospital, though I’m a media tech and I have no medical training whatsoever. About four months into the job, a woman collapsed while I was walking down a hall with her (she was lost and trying to find her was to a clinic in the hospital). Tonight I learned for the first time I had done exactly the right thing. I shouted for medical help (in a hospital, so help wasn’t far away) at the top of my lungs, and when I was sure she was conscious and breathing, I ran and got help when none immediately appeared.
Even had she NOT been breathing, I did what tonight’s traing taught me. Absolute top priority (even ahead of CPR) is get help by calling 911, or at least sending someone else to call 911. Had I been at home with someone, better to take a minute or two to call 911, than to start CPR and NOT make sure a call to 911 goes out.
I feel MUCH better. I never did, and never will, learn what happened to the woman, privacy rules being what they are. Her collapse probably wasn’t heart related (probably either blood-loss or sheer pain), and I’ve never discussed the details of what I did with the nurses I work with. But I wondered whether I did the right thing by leaving her alone to get help. And I did.
But I did the wrong thing, shortly before the collapse. She showed up at my desk, lost, looking for her OB/GYNs office. She was clearly pregnant, in serious pain, her breathing was rapid and shallow, and she leaned over to rest her head on the counter while I tried to figure out where to send her. I will NEVER again let someone in that condition walk under her own steam. I offered her a chair. I offered to get a wheelchair, which she declined. If it happens again, I will INSIST.
On the plus side, I did recognize that she was in bad enough shape that I didn’t just give her directions and send her on her way. I went with her. It was this episode that convinced me to take a CPR course.
You should take one too.
That makes two, if you count my immediate family. 