5 years since my son died

[endofthelinefinally]

I put this in chat because I really just wanted to say it where people would see it.
Do a first aid course.
Encourage your children to do a first aid course.
Talk to your teenagers about looking out for their friends, what to do in a bad situation, how to get help, have a plan for unexpected events.
Learn how to put somebody in the recovery position if they faint, fall, or have too much to drink, take something they shouldn't.
Such a simple thing to do that could save a life.
My son would be alive today if his friend had just turned him on his side.
I live with that every day of my life.
It happens more often than you would think.
St John's Ambulance and the Red Cross do courses, I am sure there are more.

@endofthelinefinally

Thank you for your responses. Tell your friends and families. *@Babyroobs*, I am so sorry for the loss of your son's friend. What a horrific experience. So sad.

I am so sorry for your loss. I too have lost a son and know the pain.

Hope you are managing to live and be happy as I am. It's all you can do really.

@endofthelinefinally sorry for your loss and such good advice.

@YoComoManzanas l have just taught my kids to starfish today in the swimming pool today, we live by water and there have been a lot of water related deaths this year. It was that advert on pop that made me do it.

endofthelinefinally you’ve reminded me that it’s something DD needs to learn before university. Thank you.

I am so sorry for your loss. I'm off to google
first aid for children now and get mine onto a course.

www.sja.org.uk/get-advice/first-aid-lesson-plans/

You're so right this is so important and so simple. It should be more of a priority.
So sorry for your loss.

@Anordinarymum I am so sorry.

I do think universities/students' union could do something along these lines. After all it is the first time away from home for most young people and many of them do go a bit mad with the partying and putting themselves in risky situations.

I’m so sorry for your loss @endofthelinefinally. This has reminded me to book a first aid course for my teen dd, so thank you. Completely agree that first aid should be taught in schools. Sending a hug.

Sending you love. I lost my son last month - I was able to do CPR because I had been taught it as part of Girlguiding. He didnt survive but I kept him going, he had a chance and he survived long enough for us to say our goodbyes. He went on to be an organ donor. CPR may not have saved him but at least we have those things to hold on to. All kids and adults should learn it and have the chance to refresh their knowledge. We make our kids learn all sorts of obsecure facts that they will never use - teach them a skill thst could save a life - that is something special.

I will definitely look into doing some first aid training. My DH is trained in paediatric first aid.

Thank you for this reminder OP.

So sorry about your son.

First aid is on the PSHE curriculum but it’s vague about what you need to teach. I’m head of Geography, but all staff in my school need to teach some PSHE at given points throughout the year. I do emergency first aid which includes putting people in the recovery position. But I’ve had to teach myself from looking online and watching videos. I’ve tried my best but I’m not trained at all. None of us are and this is part time of the problem. It’s all very well saying teachers should do it in school, but there’s limited training (and no money for it) for us so we don’t really know what we’re doing. Bringing a specialist in would be better but again there’s no money for it.

So sorry for your loss, thank you for posting this, I'll talk to my DS age 15 tomorrow

But yes I do agree that teaching it in school with properly trained staff is a good idea and will almost certainly save lives. So sorry to hear about your son.

I'm so sorry for the loss of your son @endofthelinefinally I remember doing first aid at high school, but worryingly no one actually checked you were doing cpr correctly. I've since had several refresher courses myself through work and have taught my kids from quite a young age the basics, as I was in meds that could make me pass out. My primary aged dd had a seizure at school and shockingly no one had seizure training, so now all kids do a once year day first aid for all to learn/refresh.

@Makinglists

Sending you love. I lost my son last month - I was able to do CPR because I had been taught it as part of Girlguiding. He didnt survive but I kept him going, he had a chance and he survived long enough for us to say our goodbyes. He went on to be an organ donor. CPR may not have saved him but at least we have those things to hold on to. All kids and adults should learn it and have the chance to refresh their knowledge. We make our kids learn all sorts of obsecure facts that they will never use - teach them a skill thst could save a life - that is something special.

❤❤❤ I'm so sorry for your loss too

[quote endofthelinefinally]@Anordinarymum I am so sorry. [/quote]
What can you do? It happened and it's there always. You just learn to live with the pain. You learn how to live differently.

When we were 14, my friend died of an asthma attack at a holiday camp. No one around her knew how to give first aid. If I'd been there I could have saved her life, I've been doing first aid since the Brownies.
I made sure my kids know how to put someone in the recovery position, and when and how to call an ambulance.
I never expected they'd have to do it for me but when DS1 was 12 he had to call an ambulance after I had a bad reaction to some prescribed meds.

@ChocolateRiver

First aid is on the PSHE curriculum but it’s vague about what you need to teach. I’m head of Geography, but all staff in my school need to teach some PSHE at given points throughout the year. I do emergency first aid which includes putting people in the recovery position. But I’ve had to teach myself from looking online and watching videos. I’ve tried my best but I’m not trained at all. None of us are and this is part time of the problem. It’s all very well saying teachers should do it in school, but there’s limited training (and no money for it) for us so we don’t really know what we’re doing. Bringing a specialist in would be better but again there’s no money for it.

This is shocking. I think it's John's ambulance that do our dcs school training, is there similar around you?

I’m so sorry you lost your lovely boy. Thank you for taking the time to post this it could literally save a life. Our schools pta pay for first aid courses for the P7 children every year it’s a life skill we should all have.

I know it’s not the same situation but I was actually talking to a friend this week about Leah Betts, in her awful darkest moments I’m sure her mum saved lives when she released those tragic pictures of her on life support after taking one ecstasy tablet, it certainly had a huge impact on my choices.

So sorry for your loss

My sons school have done the first aid course for all secondary children and I have reminded him of the recovery position and talked about other related issues (& he’s seen me do it for the teenager of a friend at a festival). However it it were him in that situation I honestly don’t know if al his friends would have that level of awareness & that is a terrifying thought.

You are so right and I’m so sorry you have to live with the knowledge it could have saved him. Nothing can change it - but if you can raise awareness & find a way to do so on a larger scale please do, if it even stops one family from going through what you do it will be worth it.

I am so, so sorry.

Thanks so much for the reminder. I will sign up for a refresher course. All of my first aid training comes from Girl Guides 25 years ago - we did several St. John’s ambulance courses. But nothing at school.

@TheCanyon I’m not sure. It’s not the area of school I lead. But I agree, it’s terrible. Provision should be much better.