“Save a life” – A quick &
easy Hands- Only CPR.
Figure 2
On Thursday, April 13 th, I
volunteered at the Citizen CPR Event for two hours. The event was organized at
Edmonds Community College and sponsored by Premera Blue Cross and American Red
Cross. This event’s main goal was to provide Snohomish county residents with
hands-only CPR training and ultimately, increase sudden cardiac arrest survival
rates. At the event, my duties
primarily consisted of greeting participants, holding sign in the hallway to
guide them to the correct location of the event (Woodway room no.202) and later
I did staffing the registration table. During this time, I encouraged people to
sign up and handed over the kits consisting of items pertaining to CPR training
that were sponsored by American Red Cross, Snohomish County (Figure 1&2).
At the event, there were three
instructors and a translator from the Red Cross, who explained the importance
and benefits of hands-on CPR. While the training was intended to teach the
participants, I found myself learning some new things as well. I was surprised
that despite the US being a developed country, every year more than 300,000
people suffered from cardiac arrest outside of the hospital, leading to death.
But what was more shocking was that performing CPR during the crucial period
after a cardiac arrest/collapse nearly doubled the chances of survival, often
times preventing death. After presenting these statistics, Chuck Morrison,
Executive Director at American Red cross, Snohomish county
(chuck.morrison@redcross.org) and the other instructors shared their
experiences of saving lives of a couple
of strangers by performing CPR on time. While the statistics effectively
highlighted the problem and solution, the experiences offered an emotional
perspective of the event’s goals, giving me a complete understanding of the
importance of learning hands-on CPR. Furthermore, during the training, I helped in answering questions using my background knowledge of biology. For example, when
one of the instructors asked everyone to place a squeeze toy on a handout
(Figure.1) at the center of the sternum, a participant asked me, “Is the heart
at the center?” Being a biology student, I was able to explain her the correct
location of the heart. Being able to answer questions was satisfying for me, since
it allowed me to use my knowledge in biology to help others. Moreover, I was
able to help the person sitting next to me, explain the proper technique of
using upper body strength and weight while learning to give the stokes during the CPR, which involved identifying extension
at the elbow joint and extension at wrist joint . It was self-assuring for me
to be able to connect theoretical knowledge I had learned in the classroom to
practical and realistic situations.
Participating
in this event allowed me to examine the role of science in society as a way of
improving human life. Being able to explain the scientific process of
performing CPR allows people to understand exactly what happens to the human
body, thereby increasing a person’s chance of survival. Here, science can be
perceived as a vehicle through which we can better the state of our lives.
Furthermore, being able to make a contribution through service to the community
allowed me to help people an important survival skill. The event was crucial in
spreading this knowledge, by making CPR training accessible and free of cost.
Finally, the event established a sense of bonding between the participants,
which will positively influence the probability of the participants saving a
family member’s/ stranger’s life by using hands-only CPR during a
life-threatening situation.
Looking at the bigger picture, it can be assumed that biology is
interdisciplinary because it requires an understanding of human beings through
multiple perspectives, including, behavioral, social and cultural perspectives.
A human being’s life is influenced by their daily habits, their relationships,
and their culture. These aspects in turn, affect their physical activity, their
mental state and their diet, which factor into the study of human biology.
Therefore, it can be concluded that human biology is a broad field which
focuses on how humans live in order to discover their nature.
Questions like these below popped in my mind:
Does this event takes place
every quarter/year?
What are the limitation for conducting such free events?
Can these events be done in other languages so that many more
people can be motivated to learn this life saving skill?
I hope more and more organizations should come
forward to conduct such events in our community because acquiring this
knowledge and skill can mean the difference between life and death for any
citizen.
Figure 1
Figure 1
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