It Will Never Happen to Me: A Case for Immediate Response Training

The most frequent response that I get when talking to people about taking a First Aid or CPR class is something along the lines of “I really don’t have the time to do this” or “I’m not sure, I’ll get back to you” or “lets push that back to next month”. I can read between the lines, its simply not a priority for most people. Why should it be right? It’s easy to get complacent and think, “It won’t happen to me”.

Luckily getting trained was a priority for Torri'ell Norwood, an 11th grade student who took her first First Aid/CPR class on February 19th 2021. Within 24 hours her and three of her friends were in a car accident where her training helped saved her friends life. When she checked on her friend after the accident, she noticed that her friend was unresponsive and had a deep gash on her head. Immediately Torri’ell began providing the life saving CPR that brought her friend back to life. You can read more about her story at https://bit.ly/3rHX4tC

The story does not provide much more information than what I have already provided here, however, I feel there are a few clean up items that we should address.

1. The average response time in urban areas from the time you call 9-1-1 is approximately 10 minutes. Rural areas are easily a 25–45-minute response time.

2. The article tells us that there is a secondary injury, a deep gash to the head. After her friend became responsive, direct pressure with a clean dressing should have been applied to that head wound. While head wounds are not often life threatening, they do bleed A LOT and in a trauma event should be addressed immediately.

3. Finally, I would recommend immobilization and treating for shock while monitoring the person while waiting for EMS to arrive.

The moral of the story is, you never know when disaster may strike. Accidents are the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States, and per 1,000 miles traveled 1 in every 366 people will be in a vehicle accident. You may be putting off the training needed to help save your son, daughter, mother, brother, lover, friend or acquaintance. Get trained today at https://www.emp2c.com/firstaidtraining/