Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a lifesaving technique used to revive someone whose breathing or heartbeat has stopped due to emergencies such as cardiac arrest or near-drowning. When the heart stops, the blood does not receive enough oxygen, which in turn causes brain damage, and death within 8-10 minutes. CPR can keep oxygenated blood flowing to the brain and other vital organs until the heart's normal rhythm is restored.
Last April, I attended a basic first-aid training. It was given for free by the Academy of Safety and Emergency Care (ASEC) in Shah Alam. They were the same people who regularly conducted first-aid training for my company, which I never got to join because my company only sent those in the top managerial level 😔.
Anyway, after I quit my job earlier this year, I had all the time in the world to participate in any class I wanted and learn anything I liked. I think first-aid knowledge is invaluable for everyone, not just bosses. You never know when you might need it. Somebody's life could quite literally be in your hands. Who knows, it might be the boss who needs mouth-to-mouth breathing.
In the 8-hour class, we learnt about the Heimlich maneuver, bandage techniques, and first-aid care for burns, stroke, heart attack, seizures and electric shock. For CPR training, we were divided into groups of three people, plus one dummy. Everyone took turns performing CPR on the dummy (don't worry, we had wet wipes to clean the dummy's mouth) while the other two kept time. We had to do chest compression at a rate of 100 to 120 per minute.
The trainers did everything they could to make the lesson as interesting as possible. I have to commend their skill in keeping everyone engaged. Not only were they trainers, they were also entertainers. I had seen pictures shared by my superiors who had attended this training by ASEC before. In their class, the trainers had brought in a special-effect makeup artist to create very realistic-looking fake injuries on the participants and have them role-play the emergency situations.
We didn't have that in our class, but it wouldn't have been necessary anyway, because we were people who voluntarily sacrificed our weekend to participate, as opposed to those who were forced by their employers to attend the training. Obviously we were very eager to learn. So even without the makeup and special effects, everybody was engrossed in the lesson.
At the end of the class, each of us received a certificate for our participation.
The thing with CPR is you need to take a refresher class at least every 12 months. Otherwise your knowledge and skill can become rusty. Unfortunately it's not something you can commit to muscle memory like cycling or swimming. It has only been three months now and I don't think I'd remember what to do should someone suddenly collapse in front of me. I would probably pass out cold myself.
