Only four in 10 of us know life-saving first aid. St John Ambulance aims to do something about that with a new campaign this autumn, supported by young lifesavers Mia and Beth.
One evening Mia and her Mum were playing with her baby brother. In her words, this is what happened next:
“Ralph had been unwell for a few days and was looking fed up. He brought us
a blanket because he loves us to swing him in it, so we thought he must have
been feeling better.
"At first, it looked like he was going to sleep. But all of a sudden, his eyes rolled back into his head. I picked him up to see if he was breathing. He wasn’t
breathing and his lips were turning blue. My instant reaction was “CPR”. The
adrenalin just takes over.
"I started doing chest compressions*. I did it with two fingers between the
nipples, as I’d practised on my course. My sister Maisy rang the ambulance.
My Mum did rescue breaths and I kept doing the compressions, all while we
were on the phone to 999.
"I did 30 chest compressions and checked he still wasn’t breathing. I told Mum
to do two rescue breaths and I did another 30 compressions – and then he
was breathing.
"The ambulance took no more than 5 mins. It was so quick but felt like a long
time. Five seconds feels like an hour in that situation. By the time help arrived, Ralph was conscious and sat on my Mum’s lap. The paramedic walked in all guns blazing. He said, “Is this him?” and you could see the relief, the stress drained away from his face.
"They did an ECG and general checks on Ralph but he was OK and has been
fine ever since. It was a febrile seizure. I had never heard of it, but his lips were
blue, so I just did what I’d learned on my first aid course.”
Meanwhile in a different family home, Beth was giving her toddler nephew his tea when he started to look unhappy and flap his hands. This is how Beth recalls the incident:
“Roland didn't have his hands to his throat and wasn't going red or purple – he
was sort of crying but not making any noise.
"I immediately thought he must be choking, so I grabbed him and gave him
back slaps with my right hand. I remembered my St John first aid trainer talking about people being reluctant to be forceful when giving backslaps to kids. But she said if the first backslap doesn't work, hit harder because in that
moment, you are there to save a life. It gave me the confidence.
"It took maybe four or five harder slaps before my nephew started crying and
some bread flew out. I apologised to him and explained that I needed to do the
back blows to get the bread out his throat and help him to breathe. I think he
forgave me because he was happy to hug me.
"It was when the bread came out that I was really able to think about it and all
the adrenaline and fear hit me. I felt scared for what could have happened. We
were all uncertain and scared for the rest of the night – worried anytime he ate
anything – but he was happy and totally oblivious!”
A child losing consciousness or not being able to breathe would be the most
frightening thing – but is sadly not uncommon. Thank goodness Mia and Beth knew the first aid to save their loved ones.
But according to our latest research – only four in 10 of us know how to give chest compressions to someone in cardiac arrest or how to give basic back blows to someone choking. And yet the overwhelming majority of people we asked agreed it would be easy to learn life-saving first aid.
That’s why St John Ambulance is launching Save a Life September today [29
Aug] – a campaign to teach 50,000 members of the public vital skills – including how to do CPR, use a defibrillator, give back blows and abdominal thrusts. People can learn by coming to our first aid demonstrations in public spaces, by ordering free pocket first aid guides or even viewing our first aid guidance online.
Please don’t waste any time in visiting bit.ly/savealifeseptember to order your free pocket guide and find out where your nearest first aid demonstration is!
*Our advice to someone responding to a baby in cardiac arrest is to begin resuscitation with an initial 5 rescue breaths over the nose and mouth, then 30 chest compressions with two fingers on the chest, followed by 2 rescue breaths, 30 chest compressions and repeat. For more information please visit: St John Ambulance: How to do CPR on a baby.