it's been said that we can live 40 days without food (matt 4:2), 4 days without water & just 4 mins without oxygen, & some say, not even 4 secs without God. so, except if you collapse in a medical facility, you are unlikely to get medical assistance in 4 mins, unless this is witnessed by a bystander who knows basic life support (BLS) & who is prepared to administer it.
it's been a year since i taught BLS at church. with a new batch of students, i was once again given the honour to instruct in the art & science of cardiopulmonary resusctitation (CPR).
anyone can learn CPR - you just need strong lungs (for mouth-to-mouth) & arms (for cardiac massage) & some common sense (to remain calm & organised). a demonstrator mannikin called Resusci-Anne (or Little Anne, as our half-body version is called) would be useful to have.
CPR is really as simple as ABC:
A is for maintaining an open Airway
B is for Breathing, which means mouth-to-mouth breaths
C is for Circulation : both palms, one over the other, on the breastbone...
...external cardiac massage to assist blood flow.
if there are 2 rescuers,
1 will do mouth-to-mouth while the other, the cardiac massage.
CPR is performed till the unconscious person recovers & wakes up, or till the (para)medical team arrives & takes over.
lives are saved when ordinary folks are capable of providing BLS, & this "buys time" till definitive treatment is made available. further infomation on BLS/CPR can be found at these websites:
http://www.resus.org.uk/pages/bls.pdf
http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/112/24_suppl/IV-12
Lazarus was raised from the dead without CPR but it was Elisha who may have performed the 1st on record:
Then he got on the bed and lay upon the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out upon him, the boy's body grew warm. 2 Kings 4:34
6 comments:
What happened to danger and response.
I used to be confident that I would be able to perform CPR properly should I ever have to but now, I can only ask God to either never let me have to perform it until I get my confidence back or to give me the courage should the occasion ever arise. Bleh.
I remember resusci-Anne from school, creepy babe. =)
I have always wanted to go for these courses. Hopefully I can find some time this year.
anastasia,
this post gives only a gist of the whole process - a lot of other considerations have not been included.
at some stage, you will need to be able to perform it with some degree of confidence.
be glad that it's not called resusci-Chucky!
SAHM,
unfortunately, in m'sia, the hospitals only organise this course, for a fee, for large groups, eg. companies, corporations.
St John Ambulance and the Red Crescent Society do organise courses too. Usually for schools or large-ish groups of people.
And if you're "lucky", they'll get the student volunteers to conduct the course under the supervision of someone senior. ;)
anastasia,
yes, they do & for large groups only. i only have contacts with the hospital people at the moment.
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