As I examined my friend Sheryl from head to toe, I reflected that she and I were going to know each other very well by the end of the day!
We were busy working on the St John Ambulance of Canada Emergency First Aid with Adult CPR Course.

Sheryl practising chest compressions St John Ambulance Course

In a previous life in England I had been the First Aider for my company. I had taken the St John Ambulance UK, training for first aid at work which involved a week of full time study and a stiff examination at the end. I remember that all of those who took the examination struggled to inflate the ‘Resusy Anne’ doll we used to practice Cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR. It was old, heavy, awkward and, frequently, did not work even if your resuscitation technique was just right. We were all apprehensive when it came to exam time and had a very real sense of relief when Anne co-operated and we passed.

Since then I have not been able to renew my qualification as it lapsed after three years and by then I was living in Dhaka, Bangladesh. There I was unable to find anyone who was able to refresh my knowledge and so, although I still had the training, I could not use it as I was not certified to do so. In the course of time, memory dimmed and new techniques were introduced of which I was unaware.

Peter Quinn adjusting Sheryl’s sling St Johns Ambulance Course

Recently it was suggested to me that I might like to renew my basic knowledge. This seemed like a good idea and so I was put in touch with Peter Quinn, a veteran of the Fort McMurray Fire Service in Canada where he was an Emergency Medical Technician, who has been teaching for St John Ambulance of Canada for fifteen years. He teaches here on island and was willing to run a course for Sheryl and I.

Sheryl has recently had an unsettling experience. She was on an aeroplane travelling across America when a passenger in front of her had a heart attack. She was unable to help and she resolved then and there that she would take a first aid course at the first opportunity. She did not wish to feel as helpless as she did at that time, ever again. When I told her of the course I wanted to take, she immediately enrolled too.

This course was designed for those first on the scene of an emergency. As such it had a different emphasis to the training I had previously taken. It was designed to equip us to deal with emergencies, rather then the routine paper cut fingers and everyday knocks and scrapes of life in an office.

In a very intensive day of learning we trained in the core competences of emergency scene management, how to administer first aid to people who are in shock, unconscious, choking, bleeding or having cardiovascular emergencies. We learnt about medical conditions such as diabetes, angina, asthma and allergies, together with wound care and first aid for burns. In a nutshell, we were equipped with the confidence to assess and take charge of an emergency scene and to give the first, possibly life saving, attention that a Good Samaritan would provide.

The course was hands on from the first. We watched an instructional film for each section of the course and then we were invited to try out the techniques we had been shown, under the direction of our instructor. This was both useful and fun as Sheryl and I checked each other for injuries and practised our bandaging techniques. I learnt that ‘Resusy Anne’ had been consigned to the great doll maker in the sky, much to the relief of instructors world wide who no longer had to lug her around and hope that she would work when set up for their students. Nowadays a plastic head attached to a lightweight upper torso, with plastic bag lungs, performs the same function as the old style doll with the minimum of fuss for all concerned. For me it was a novel experience to practise my two breaths into the body and thirty compressions on the chest CPR routine on something so lightweight and easy to use. Mind you, if my technique had not been correct, this version too would have failed to inflate so I still had to make sure that I was doing things properly. I noticed too that the CPR breaths to compression rate had changed since I was last certified. I used to use a ratio of two breaths to fifteen compressions, not thirty. Modern thinking has obviously moved on and now compressions are considered of more use than breaths into the body.

Peter Quinn was both knowledgeable and patient while leading us through the course and professional when he administered the examination at the end of the day. We were taught in an informal setting at his home, with much humour and interest in his students, which put us both at ease. His wife’s muffins were very good too!

By the end of the day we were both exhausted!
When we passed the course we were very pleased to say the least! It was a lot to assimilate in a single day, but the sense of achievement was well worth the effort. We are now both qualified to render Emergency First Aid for the next three years and CPR for the next year. We both hope we will never need our new skills, but, if they are needed, at least we will have the basic knowledge of what to do for an individual until medical care can be obtained for them.

Peter Quinn can be reached on peterfquinn@caribcable.com

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