Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Annie, we hardly knew ye

We had CPR training at work today. It's been almost three years since the last time.

Resuscitation Annie's looking a little worse for the wear these days. Oh, the stories she could tell! She was outnumbered in the class by smaller, modern and hairless dummies. They're kind of boring.

It's good to brush up and get the latest recommendations on technique. Now you're supposed to start right in on compressions, and then do rescue breathing. The compressions are faster, too – 100 compressions per minute. You can hum The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" to stay on track.

Have you ever had to do CPR? I haven't, and I hope I never have to. There was this one time I found a driver slumped over his steering wheel, in traffic, in a snowstorm, and I thought, "Oh shit." But it turned out he was just drunk.

3 comments:

  1. I have never had to do CPR, but I did use the Heimlich maneuver on a restaurant patron, when I was a waitress. The person just sat back down and kept eating, even though we were one block from the hospital. I guess she was hungry.

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  2. I work at a hospital and am training to become a BLS instructor, so the "staying alive" tip made me laugh. We are always told that, and told to tell people that! Unfortunately due to the nature of my job I've seen / been involved in more than enough situations where CPR was required. It's totally nerve wrecking no matter how many times.

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  3. Wow, BG, I'll bet that was scary. I think a hospital visit wouldn't be necessary, though I probably wouldn't have much of an appetite if I'd almost died.

    Steph, "Stayin' Alive" is a memorable tip, and handy! I've only ever seen CPR done on a dog. And it didn't work :-(

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