I wanted to share a story about the necessity of communication and 911 services. I lost another neighbor yesterday and he was 61 years old from a heart attack. They are an older couple from Serbia and do not speak English very well. The wife ran to another one of my neighbors houses to get help. At the time, they ran to offer their help, they also asked her if she has already called 911. She indicated that she did in fact call 911 and they began CPR on the gentleman.
After 10 minutes of performing CPR, they were getting very tired and wondered where the emergency team was and decided to call themselves again. In fact, the 911 Operator indicated that they did not get a call for help. They asked for help and within 5 minutes the emergency team arrived. Unfortunately, the gentleman was pronounced dead when they arrived but there are two things that can be learned from this situation.
If you find a situation where there is an emergency, call 911. It appears in the event of an emergency, people involved all assume that someone else called. There is nothing wrong with calling 911 several times for the same emergency and the 911 Operator will indicate that someone has already called in. Better to be safe than sorry. As CPR certified myself, one of the things were learn is to point one person out and tell them to call 911 and not to just scream out and say, “Someone call 911.” Make sure you tell one specific person.
Secondly, it is extremely important that you and your family members, even children, are aware how to perform CPR. About.com provides step by step instructions on how to perform CPR and it really can save someones life in an emergency situation. You can find that information here http://firstaid.about.com/od/cpr/ht/06_cpr.htm.
Do you have a story of how CPR saved someones life?
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This is such a sad story. It makes me realize that as we become such a very mixed country ethnically, there are things that need to be communicated in many languages. How to call 911 is clearly one of those things.
Plus, we all pay for 911 services as part of our phone bill. It is sad that she didn't know how to do something so simple that might have helped save her husband's life.
I saw a truck hit a school bus one time right in front of me. Thankfully, there were no children on the bus, but it was an accident in an intersection. I realized after a moment that I should call 911, but thought surely, with all the other witnesses and cell phones at that intersection, someone else had called by then. I was wrong; as it turns out, I was the first caller. I learned then that we want calling 911 to be our first reaction, not our second.
Good to know where the CPR instructions are online. I took a CPR class several years ago but would not be certain about my ability to remember all the details today. Thanks for the link.
November 10, 2008 - 9:34amThis Comment
Hey Susan,
Unfortunately, there was about a 20 minute lapse in time from the time that he had the heart attack to when the wife came over to get help. I think by the time CPR was administered, 25 minutes had elapsed. As we know, there is little time to help a heart attack victim. I am uncertain if she was aware of the 911 system. Under the circumstances, I think she just agreed with whatever anyone said to her with the lack of communication and the intenseness of the situation.
My 22 year old neighbor is the one that administered CPR via instructions of the 911 Operator. I commend him for participating. He was very courageous.
I am certainly glad to hear your teaching your children at young ages. It is very important to teach your children and you can also call 911 with your children and when the operator answers let them know you are only teaching your children on the use of the 911 system and that there is no emergency. They take mock drill calls all the time. It is important to let them know immediately that it is only a drill.
We can only hope that there is never a need for 911, but being prepared is certainly worth the training.
November 8, 2008 - 4:06pmThis Comment