Whoever told you that–whoever said that it’s more important for the government not to be sued than for someone’s life to be saved–was a monster.
Most heart attacks happen in places where there are a lot of people. Churches, grocery stores, gyms, crowded beaches. Wilderness first aid training (which I’ve also done) is an entirely different beast from basic first aid and CPR training. Places with lots of people have working phones.
- check that the situation is safe for you
- address major bleeding
- call 911, or ask someone to if there is another person on the scene
- grab the AED if relevant, or ask someone to
- begin CPR
Bolding mine. THIS. I haven’t had a CPR course in 15-20 years, but I’ve held several courses and certifications. I don’t feel a burning need to get current but I know enough to be of help to the victim if noone else is around to help them. I’ll just start doing it.
Yeah,
I was serious about that “more stamina”. I’m in mediocre shape. I get exhausted in CPR class doing
Heck, you couldn’t even make it to the end of that sentence!
Having been an Army medic in a past life, I assure you that I don’t need the basics of CPR quoted to me, and we’ll just have to agree to disagree whether it’s a reasonable assumption that every location in the world will always have a functioning cell phone in range of a cell phone tower and a rapid rescue response.
At any rate this is a pointless digression, I’m not advising anyone not to do CPR, just playing a bit of devil’s advocate as to why, in the age of ubiquitous cell phone coverage, people might be a bit leery to be seen ripping the bra off an unconscious woman. If your position is that cell phone coverage is always universal, then that supports the fact that an passer-by might could start recording at any time, so extra care is needed.
No, I think it’s a ludicrous fear because no one is going to mistake giving someone CPR with sexual assault.
And has been asked already, can you show one example of such a thing ever happening?
It was a DA statement. I doubt there are citations either way for what you’re asking.
If I was a passerby and saw an incapacitated woman surrounded by strangers of which one or two decided to take action I admit I’d feel uncomfortable on behalf of the “patient” if they fussed about her underclothes to bare her chest rather than going straight to resuscitation.
But in these days Id guess most passerby’s might assume overdose rather than heart attack. Narcan stat!
A good post. Staying’ Alive also works well. In fairness, almost all my CPR is in a hospital setting which is not quite the same.
Because dealing with codes is emotionally exhausting, regardless of your physical shape two minutes of CPR will always be challenging.
That was actually a discourse bug, but well timed, i guess.
This. CPR doesn’t look like sexual assault. I’ll say it again, i can understand a man who has been conditioned to avoid female breasts being reluctant to start CPR. Because that’s how conditioning works, and we do all sorts of irrational things. But there’s no rational reason, unless you are a crazy misogynist, to avoid doing CPR on a woman with breasts.
Not me, I was never a bigwig in state government and I’m not sure how you got that idea. However, my direct supervisor would say that yes, you should have not touched her, you should have called 911.
My Sister was a biggish wig working for the state.
She worked exclusively with elder care. Visited lots of facilities.
Her state required her to have self defense classes. To work with geriatrics. 
State jobs are not always sane in their thinking.
(She was also certified in CPR)
I had direct supervisors that would say the same - but that doesn’t mean it was the actual policy. Or that people would lose their jobs if the state got sued. Or that the person you asked even knew why you didn’t get emergency training. It’s entirely possible that you got zero emergency training because it just wasn’t particularly relevant to your job - I got it because I was a peace officer but the clerks in my office didn’t get that training and I doubt the clerks at the department of motor vehicles did.
When I was a clerk for the county, we got all of the emergency training everyone else did. Same when I worked for the feds. I got that sort of training when I was working for the county in a different state. That is why I asked about it when I started working for the state of Arizona.
At one point in my life, I spent 8 years working in a warehouse for the county. I saw maybe 3 people a day but I still had to recertify my first aid, CPR, defensive driving and defib training every year.
As a food stamp eligibility worker, I spent my days in a crowded building full of people. Drug overdoses in the restroom happened often enough that they weren’t a source of gossip. People were sick, people brought in sick children and let them run around in the parking lot. “Service” dogs got into fights and bit people.
If there was ever a job where some sort of first aid training was necessary, that one was it. Which is why I was so shocked to learn that the defibrillator case was locked because nobody was trained to use it.
Of course, I’m sure your experience and knowledge overrules what I think I remember from a lifetime of government work, so I will just say that you are 100 percent right as usual and I will just take my false memories and go away.
I’m not really sure where you got all that about false memories from when I specifically said " It’s entirely possible" and “It doesn’t mean”.
It’s not impossible that you both remembered correctly and the person you asked gave you incorrect information.
Because of this, it is often assumed that someone in the crowd is already calling 911, that is a mistake.
One of the first things a person should do, before starting CPR, is to point directly at someone and say “YOU, Call 911” if there is another person available tell them to assist her/him and make sure they follow through. This frees up the main person performing CPR to concentrate on the task at hand.
Every training session I ever had, this was the first step, if you had anyone else around. “You!, call 911, you! help and make sure they do so.” Most people in an emergency situation would like to help, they hope for a good outcome, but they will not act. Telling them directly to act frees up their decision making. It is an odd facet of human behaviour but it is important to keep in mind.
Even in a non-CPR situation, clear direction gets people moving.
I noticed with Ivy, my aide, that she gets bossy during emergency situations. It gets the job done.
I appreciate someone willing to take control.
Even better, if possible (of course, it won’t always be) is to call someone out by name.
Can I sing Another One Rides the Bus if I don’t remember the original words?