Imperfect FunGal

What Made Me Think About This?

When I was at UT, I took CPR and basic first aid for my job.  I worked for intramurals, and you would be amazed by some of the injuries I saw.  People fighting for a t-shirt and a picture on a wall can be blood thirsty.

It’s now many years later and my basic philosophy has been “yup, I learned that and should be good to go,” I mean, really, can it have changed that much?  Fast forward to now, where I am helping educate on kids’ field trips, planning to start leading state park hikes soon, and generally spending a lot of time on trails that may or may not be “safe.” Now that people would look to me in case something went wrong, it suddenly seemed like a great time for a refresher!  

Luckily, Bastrop State Park paired with Ally Medical to package everything I needed into 1 neat package.  I was going to learn CPR, AED, Choking (how to prevent, not how to), and STOP THE BLEED with the only major sacrifice being a Saturday morning and afternoon.  Sign me up!  Also a disclaimer – these are my thoughts based on the class, and what I researched post-class. They may not align directly with what was trained in class.

What I Learned

Well, it seems that a lot more has changed than I expected.  The good news was that “Staying Alive” would still work for my CPR song – crisis averted.  Also, there are some weird consent laws in Texas to do with the Good Samaritan Law.  To oversimplify it:

• If they are conscious – aka choking but not down – you must get consent, or you’re not covered
• If they are unconscious – you’re covered if you attempt to help

CPR – The basics

First off the steps are a little different than they used to be:

1. Scene Safety – Is the area safe? Are you on a hard surface? Are there people around that can help?
2. Tap and Shout – Do a sternum rub…gone are the days of “Annie, Annie, are you OK?”  Go straight to the thing that will get a person up and moving if they can.
3. Assignments – Call 911, Get the AED – make eye contact and get acknowledgement.
4. Pulse – Check pulse in neck with 2 fingers.  Watch for the chest to rise up and down
5. Perform CPR – Do 30 chest compressions, and then 2 breaths 

CPR – What’s New

1. They now have cool videos that show you what’s actually happening when you do CPR and why compression depth is so important.  
2. They simplified everything so that counts are the same, only the methods differ slightly (2 hands – Adult, 1 hand – Child, 2 fingers – infant)
3. They let you know in advance that you will likely break someone’s ribs, what it sounds like, and why you should keep going – Knowing is half the battle.
4. There are new CPR songs you can use:
   1. Baby Shark – Yup, stuck in there forever
   2. Dancing Queen 
   3. Another One Bites the Dust – for the morbid folks out there
   4. Don’t like these?  Spotify has an entire playlist for you to choose from!
5. Last but not least, they went over the idea of team CPR, what jobs to assign (people who know CPR vs go direct emergency personnel because you’re looking pretty green).

AED

This was my first experience with AED other than seeing them in hallways and on TV with someone shouting “Clear”.  What was great was that the instructor ran us through the whole process so that we could see and hear what would happen in real life and be prepared.  I’ll be honest, prior to this class I always looked at them as too hard to use, but in reality, if you can turn it on, everything else is clear as day. 

AED – New to Me

1. If you can get jewelry off, do it.  If you can’t (tummy rings, nipple rings, great big clunky chains…)  leave it.  Will they get a burn – yup, do they have a better chance of staying alive – also yup.
2. If you are in a place where you might need to use an AED (work, school gym, sporting event…) have an idea of where it is.

Choking – The Basics

Remember to get consent first.

1. Abdominal Thrusts – Right below the CPR spot, thumb in, hook the other hand on top, and pull in and up. Five thrusts.
2. Move the person over a chair or table, do 5 back blows

Choking – New to Me

1. Back thrusts – I had no idea, but it makes total sense.
2. Stand with your feet offset so that you have better balance.  If they go down and take you with them, there are now 2 patients.
3. If you can’t get your arms around the person, put them up against a wall and do the same movements.
4. If you are doing this on a child, get to their level or get them to yours, your movements will have more impact.

Stop the Bleed

This was a bit of a tough one as I went in with more of a someone gets impaled by a tree (not likely) though process.  In reality, this is in large part how to help people if they have been shot (could be likely).  NOTE: We did learn what to do when impaled with a branch as well.

ABCs of Stop the Bleed

• Alert 911 – tell them your location and follow their instructions
• Bleeding
  • Find the source of the bleeding – Is the bleeding continuous, large volume, or pooling?
  • Remember, it can be coming from multiple locations or hiding under clothes (get clothes off)
• Compress
  • Arms and legs – Tourniquet, pack, compress
  • Groin and pits (arm and leg) – Pack, compress
  • Main Body – Compress

Things to Remember

1. If you don’t have gauze, use whatever you have available
2. Bunch a little material as you are packing a wound in order to protect your fingers from sharp edges, broken bones
3. Pack as much as you can, then compress
4. Clearing the area – to better triage, tell everyone who can move or hear you to move to the side, this will help you find the most severe patients first
5. For open injuries, wet the gauze (water or saline) and place it on the wound, and then cover with dry gauze, this will help with the gauze sticking to the wound

Final Thoughts

First off, you should go get trained on one or all of these.  If you never need it in life,  that’s amazing.  As a person who feels guilty a lot, think of how you would feel if you found yourself in the situation and had no idea what to do.  The Ally training was amazing, so I recommend them, but you can also find these at your schools, from fire departments:

• Ally Calendar
• The Red Cross offers in-person and online classes
• Austin/Travis County EMS
• Stop the Bleed classes (if your teachers have to take them, you should too)

If you’re already certified and looking for something else to do – especially if you have kids in school – get a Stop the Bleed kit and donate it to a school, or specifically your kid’s classroom(s).  Most of these stations (required by law) are held in the hallways at school and you know what’s not accessible during a lockdown – the hallway.

• Directly from Stop the Bleed (of course Texas has an add on pack as well – look for the $20 add on) 
• True Rescue (approved distributor)
• Google “Stop the Bleed” kit and pick one that you like