CPR class

Work offered a free CPR class yesterday, so I took it. It has been a while, over 10 years, and the AED (Automated External Defibrillator) is at the forefront of the process now. They've also changed the sequence of steps from ABC to CAB, meaning that a round of chest compressions (hard and fast!) should start right after assessing that the scene is safe, followed by checking airway and breathing.

This emphasis on the AED of course assumes that when someone goes down, someone can start chest compressions, while someone ELSE calls 911 and gets the AED. We have seven of them at work, and I could get to one if need be. Great, so if there's a crisis outside of work, where do you go? It occurred to me that there should be a smart phone application for that. And there is, so I will download it to to my phone today.

Participating in stuff like this always makes me a little anxious that I would someday have to put the knowledge to work. Everyone should at least (if I may pontificate for a moment) have read how to use one. The statistics are staggering. Almost a quarter of a million people go into sudden cardiac arrest each year.