Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Deepak John Nayak on February 8, 2012 at 19:25

hey manoj! how do i sign up?

Permalink Reply by Manoj Haveri on February 8, 2012 at 19:33

Deepak, give me till noon tomorrow. Need to figure out a way for everyone to register. Once I have it, will setup a page and include more information.

Permalink Reply by Deepak John Nayak on February 8, 2012 at 19:36

that's cool!

Permalink Reply by Manoj Haveri on February 8, 2012 at 21:38

Information for registering for the training has been updated above. Please register using this form. Once you register, we will provide you contact name & phone numbers to help you pay for the training.

Permalink Reply by Manoj Haveri on February 19, 2012 at 14:33

Report on CPR and First Aid Training

 

Before I lose all of it and make it more and more inaccurate, thought of writing about the CPR and first aid training we had on Feb 18 2012.

 

Started with a very very short/brief introduction of the instructor Dr. Ravi S Kumar and the work the NGO he represents does.

 

We started out by initially focusing on aspects required to even be a first aid provider followed by others. Some that I remember:

• In all situations ensure your own safety before you decide to attempt administering first aid to others. If not safe just forget it move out.
• If you get too emotional with what has happened at a disaster site, don’t even bother to administer any first aid to anyone. It’s paramount that you be able to think logically than emotionally while administering first aid.
• Access Assess the overall situation at a disaster site. The tendency being to help the nearest and then move on to the next affected person. Always help the person who is unconscious first, followed by person who may be bleeding profusely yet conscious and last being someone who may be fractured and screaming in pain like crazy.
• Even if you have just one person unconscious assess the surroundings before administering first aid. It will possibly help you understand what might have happened.
• This is in case you entered a disaster site and a person is already unconscious. While wanting to help the unconscious person and if you are alone, always phone/call others to the site of incident and only then attend to the person. It is ok to delay first aid further since the person is already unconscious. If you are not alone let one person take the responsibility of calling out others while one person administers first aid.
• If a person becomes unconscious in your presence and if you are alone, administer first aid immediately before trying to call out for help. The chances of recovery with minimal damage are the most if first aid is provided in the very early stage of unconsciousness.

 

A person could get unconscious due to multiple reasons two of them being respiratory arrest and/or cardiac arrest. Both of these will lead to death in 2-6 minutes.

 

A heart attack where the person will be conscious is not as serious as respiratory or cardiac arrest. But a heart attack can still lead to cardiac arrest which can be very serious. Heart attack is when certain parts of your heart muscles are affected (dies) and the heart is circulating oxidized blood at a much reduced level. Cardiac arrest is when the electrical system of your heart fails and the heart is no longer able to pump oxidized blood. Some details and more details. Respiratory arrest is when the lungs are no longer processing air to provide oxidized blood to the heart.

 

Providing first aid to an unconscious patient requires the first aid provider to follow a ABC or a CAB after the patient is made to lie on their back. ABC if the person was already unconscious when the first aid provider entered the scene. CAB if the person became unconscious in the presence of the first aid provider. Here A, B and C stands for:

• A – Clearing the Airway. Required because an unconscious persons tongue can slip in blocking the airway.
• B – Checking the Breathing. Holding your finger next to the patient’s nose or listening to the persons breathing by putting your ear to their nose and simultaneously watching their chest to give some indication of breathing.
• C – Checking the Circulation of blood. For infants checking the pulse on the armpits and for adults around the neck.

 

If you confirm that the person is not breathing and has no heartbeat, administer CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation). Else do not perform CPR. Also ensure that the patient is unconscious and not just sleeping before you go ABC or CAB.

 

We also got to see how AED equipment (a defibrillator) could be used to provide electrical shock to revive the patient’s heart. The electrical shock acts sorry to say like rebooting your PC. An AED equipment is always used after the CPR. CPR helps in starting the heart beats. Once the heartbeat starts, it’s possible that it could be irregular (Arrhythmic) and the AED equipment helps in making it regular.

 

 

We then also discussed about how to transport an injured person, administering first aid to a drowned person (filmi v/s real), rescue of a choked victim (Mrs. Doubtfire), using pressure points to control bleeding and different types of bandages ending the day with a tourniquet.

 

The session started with an expectation that we would be done in 3 hours and finally lasted for some 4.5 hours.

 

Would recommend all to point out any corrections required.