PERSPECTIVE

In the immortal words of Anton Ego, "You serve me what you dare and I'll offer you some perspective."

This is the view from where my friend suffered a medical emergency that resulted in his heart stopping and CPR being required. Most people would look at that view of a fire station with an Ambulance and Engine in it and say,"Man there's not much better place to be if something is going to happen." And here is where they are wrong.

If the normal response is to dial 911 and wait for professional help, the dispatcher must get information about what the call is about and where it is then tone out the appropriate resources. They then have to get to their vehicles, locate not only where the location is but in this case, how to get through a secured construction site to get best access to the patient. THAT TAKES TIME! What if the engine and ambulance were out on other calls? It happens, multiple time a day.
Yesterday, the people around him when he went down, stood up and took immediate action. They did what they could with the knowledge and training they had to make sure that when professional help arrived, there was as viable of a patient for them to work on as possible.

We aren't talking curing cancer by yourself in the field. We are talking simple, PROVEN, life saving efforts that dramatically increase a persons chances of survival and recovery. And your willingness to step up and use them.

We do not have control over wither the Where or the When knobs, we do, however, have absolute control over the "How am I going to react" knob. All I ask is that you work to make that knob turn a notch higher than where it is now. If that is just getting it off of 0, so be it. Ultimately, most will not choose to make theirs go all the way to 11 and become a Firefighter or Paramedic, or LEO, or Soldier, or Dispatcher. Knowing CPR, how to use an AED, and how to control serious bleeding takes mere hours to initially learn and very little practice time to stay in shape. The flip side, is that can make all the difference of if a person lives or dies within the next 5 minutes or less.

How about we work on getting your HOW knob to at least turn up to a 4? Learn CPR, Learn how to use an AED, Learn "Stop The Bleed."

The life you save may not be important to you at the moment, but I bet they are important to somebody!



EDIT TO ADD: My friend called the job site this morning to talk! THAT is the difference between someone standing there knowing CPR and doing and people standing around waiting for 911 to respond.