I want to tell you why it's so important for everyone to know CPR. I'm going to tell you a true story about an ambulance run I've had. Unfortunately it hasn't been the only one. And most EMT's and Paramedics can tell you a story that they've experienced.
At about 10 PM on a Wen. night we received a 911 call. The caller was a female. She was screaming that her baby wasn't breathing. We receive a lot of calls from panicked parents a lot saying their child isn't breathing…. And you hear the child in the background screaming. This time there was nothing…. Absolute silence except for this mother. My partner and me jumped into the Ambulance and took off. It took us about 9 minutes to get to the house from the ER where we worked. Upon arriving we jumped out of the rig and I started for the house as my partner grabbed some equipment out of the back. As I reached the door I found the father holding a small child in his arms and running out to meet us. I took the baby as we met at the door…. She was limp, blue as I took her. I but my face down to hers and couldn't detect any breathing. I can tell you at this point I was terrified. I was still a newbie. And this was the first time I'd ever dealt with a child in serious distress. I started to give her rescue breathing as I started running back to the rig. My partner who was more experienced jumped in the back with me as we had a fireman drive the ambulance back to the hospital. We continued CPR throughout the transport upon arriving at the ER we where met by the staff who took the baby from us. Total time we where out was about 21 minutes. According to research done by the American Heart Assoc. Less then 1% of those who do not receive CPR within the first 8 minutes of onset survive. Less then 1 in a hundred…… This beautiful 9-month-old baby girl became one of those 99 that didn't survive. Robin was a beautiful little girl whose life was cut way to short… I know this because she was my next door neighbor. The hardest part was that neither of her parents knew CPR maybe it wouldn't have made a difference. But we'll never know that now. My best friend who was my partner that night never recovered. The next day he quit and has never returned to medicine. I still look back and wonder what I could have done different. I can't even imagine how her parents deal with their loss. I hope that by telling you this story it makes you think about if you'd know what to do. If not call your local Red Cross or American Heart Assoc. and take the class. I beg you not to let someone you love become a statistic because you don't know what to do.
Email: air_force_medic@hotmail.com
