People I respect

[cjsmith]

I respect EMTs and paramedics. Seriously. I respect the hell outta people who do that work.

For years I've had an itch to get more and better crisis-response medical training. First aid, First Responder, paramedic, EMT... I don't even know all the designations, but I've wanted the training. People who do this work save lives. It's not only useful, it's vital, in the root sense of that word.

Naturally these thoughts of mine are in sharper focus lately.

Me, I probably couldn't be an emergency medical responder full-time. I have more than one chronic pain condition that could disable me just enough to keep me out of that line of work completely. My Bay Area mortgage also pushes for a high-tech job. So OK, not full-time, not unless a lot changes.

There's still quite a bit I can do. I could refresh my medic first aid training, keep my CPR training up to date, look at first responder courses, organize a workplace emergency response team... Stuff. Y'know. Stuff that could be useful. Stuff that could, for someone I happen across some day, be vital.

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'd have to get pretty good to teach -- but yes, I could do that in time. In fact, as a "community preparedness" thing, I might even be able to volunteer my time for it, making the classes less expensive for others. I like this idea!

We've got first-aid kits in our cars and in the airplane. As for square dancing, Rob has had multiple medical situations occur while he's been calling: one diabetic person having a siezure, one heart attack moments after walking out the dance hall door... The population we call to is not overwhelmingly healthy. It's good to know what to do in the first minute or two.

I definitely like the idea of the workplace stuff. I don't know how much support I'd need from the company, but it's worth finding out.

[ericainohio.livejournal.com]

Hm - I never thought about that with square dancing. I bet there's a lot of medical situations that arise because of the number of older folks who dance. So what did Rob do in those situations? Was someone available to help, or did he assist?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a little scary sometimes. I've heard that the average age of square dancers is going up one year per year -- we're not getting younger people into the activity. (I'm not at all surprised by that, of course.) The exception to that is the gay clubs, where people tend to be much younger. I suspect that in thirty years there won't be much straight square dancing in existence.

The diabetic siezure happened when an RN was nearby, so she helped stabilize the guy while Rob phoned for the paramedics. The heart attack happened just outside the hall in a big entryway of a hotel, and I think the hotel staff were the ones to get the ambulance for that guy. (He made it and is still dancing.)