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By Kirsten Garvin - Team Member and Staff Writer for The Cardiac Bear
It began as an ordinary day for my friend Bethany...her family had plans to go to the movies and spend some well deserved time together. But their joyful time together was cut short when the movie-goer waiting in line ahead of them suddenly collapsed.
Everyone around was in shock and looked around in confusion; some well meaning bystanders wanted to help and rushed to check on the woman as she laid on the ground. She wasn’t breathing! As a couple valuable seconds began to tick by, Bethany realized that the bystanders who rushed in to check on the woman could do little else--they didn’t know CPR.
Bethany immediately assessed the scene for safety. She looked a bystander in the eye and directed “Call 9-1-1!” She began CPR and continued until the EMS staff arrived and took over.
Unfortunately, none of us are able to know the eventual outcome of the woman who collapsed; not even Bethany herself. But according to the American Heart Association’s CPR Fact Sheet, we can feel assured that thanks to the immediate help our movie-goer received, her chances of survival were doubled--or even tripled!
On that chilly autumn day when Bethany and her coworkers attended a Red Cross First-Aid and CPR training, she had no reason to ever think that she’d have to actually use her CPR training, but still diligently learned it JUST IN CASE. As all emergencies do, this one struck without warning on what seemed like an otherwise average day. I think Bethany’s experience can resonate with so many of us--we never know if there will come a time when we will end up playing the hero in someone else’s life story. But if, and when, that time may come, you could truly save someone’s life. And by saving their life, you’d be saving countless others from the pain and heartache of losing a dearly loved one.
Make the choice to be ready to save a life. Read the American Heart Association’s CPR Fact Sheet, Two Simple Steps poster, and find a CPR class near you.
