First Aid: From Movies to Real Life

At my work today, I had a class on first aid training. I recently volunteered to be one of the first responders for my department. That means I would be responsible for rendering aid to anyone that is injured or becomes ill. But first I would need to go through the six hour training class. And it was very interesting. The instructor was a 30 year EMS veteran and he knew everything you could possibly think of. And as the class went on I kept noticing how certain topics always had a connection to a film or some TV show. So I thought I would do a post about it.

The first topic we covered was rendering CPR to a person who is unconscious. Be it from a heart attack or drowning, that person is not breathing now. So they need to be revived quickly before brain damage sets in. By doing the quick compresses to the chest and breathing into their mouth. And then if you have a defibrillator handy, give them a shock to their system. Well that made me think of the scene from Pulp Fiction, where Uma Thurman nearly overdoses on drugs and John Travolta has to jam the needle into her chest.



And then immediately I thought of Casino Royale when Bond is poisoned and he has to use his defibrillator on himself.

http://youtu.be/hxPIJFNsUzU

The instructor told us that a person has a better chance of being revived from drowning in cold water during a cold period as opposed to warmer waters in warmer days. That reminded me of the scene in The Abyss where Ed Harris lets his wife drown in the cold water because they only have one suit. He swims back to the base and tries to revive her. And it works eventually. Very intense scene.



We also talked about burns, cuts, and more types of possible injuries a person could get. It was a very helpful class and we got plenty of hands on practice with mannequins, where we got to perform CPR. And we also got to perform the heimlich manuever on each other, simulating a person choking on food.

One of the most intense scenes has to be from Flatliners in this clip below as the guys do everything they can to save Julia Roberts.


And with that I willl wrap up this post and let everyone know that I received my training today and a certificate of completion. I feel pretty good about that.