I Trained as an E.F.R. (Emergency First Response) instructor, it's one of those courses that you hope that you are never going to use but you need it for rescue diver and dive master so what the hell you do it and hope that you will never have to use it.
Well here I am 5 years down the road, and up until last Wednesday night I have never used the skill I learnt on that course well not for real anyway, but that all changed on Wednesday.
Like most people here in Tenerife I have two jobs Dive instructor by day News Paper distributor at night and it was while I was distributing news papers in the Cristianos area that I found a man lying on his back in an area where you would not expect a person to be, so I got hold of the security at the apartment block to come with me to investigate closer. when we got to the man we could see that he had suffered a head injury and was unconscious and his breathing was erratic I checked for a pulse it was there although very week. The security man said that he knew him, and that he had seen him leaving the apartment block about 20 minutes earlier, I stayed with the guy while the security guard went to call for an ambulance checking his pulse & vital signs after a few minutes he stopped breathing so I had to start CPR on him, this was the very first time that I had had to do this although I have practiced many times on a mannequin, to do it for real was rather daunting but none the less I had to do it until the paramedics arrived.
I have absolutely no idea how long that was Time just seemed to stand still for a while and before I new it they had arrive and I could then let them take over, while they worked on the guy who's name was Tony I had a few moments to reflect on what might have happend to Tony how did he come to be there, it appeared that he had fallen about 15mts in to the car park area and had landed badly causing a serious injury to his head, the paramedics worked on Tony for about an hour getting him stable enough to move, I was told that he was breathing on his own and that the readings they where getting where week but steady. In my mind I felt that I did what I could for Tony at the time but you always wonder if you could have done more, I just did what I had been trained to do and what I have trained many others to do under those circumstances. That is all anyone cans ask of you, some times the outcome will be good and other times the outcome may be not so good, but you have done your best to save a life and that is a good thing.
I have since found out that Tony died on the way to the hospital and my condolences go out to his family and loved ones.
As I sit here writing this I wounder if this is a good idea to publish this on my blog because there was a moment just after I found Tony lying there and the ambulance had been called that I felt like just walking away and leaving it to the experts, but I just could not do it I had to try and do what ever I could to help.
So if you ever wonder about the merits of doing an EFR course you never know when you might be in a position to help a stranger or even a member of your family.
Well here I am 5 years down the road, and up until last Wednesday night I have never used the skill I learnt on that course well not for real anyway, but that all changed on Wednesday.
Like most people here in Tenerife I have two jobs Dive instructor by day News Paper distributor at night and it was while I was distributing news papers in the Cristianos area that I found a man lying on his back in an area where you would not expect a person to be, so I got hold of the security at the apartment block to come with me to investigate closer. when we got to the man we could see that he had suffered a head injury and was unconscious and his breathing was erratic I checked for a pulse it was there although very week. The security man said that he knew him, and that he had seen him leaving the apartment block about 20 minutes earlier, I stayed with the guy while the security guard went to call for an ambulance checking his pulse & vital signs after a few minutes he stopped breathing so I had to start CPR on him, this was the very first time that I had had to do this although I have practiced many times on a mannequin, to do it for real was rather daunting but none the less I had to do it until the paramedics arrived.
I have absolutely no idea how long that was Time just seemed to stand still for a while and before I new it they had arrive and I could then let them take over, while they worked on the guy who's name was Tony I had a few moments to reflect on what might have happend to Tony how did he come to be there, it appeared that he had fallen about 15mts in to the car park area and had landed badly causing a serious injury to his head, the paramedics worked on Tony for about an hour getting him stable enough to move, I was told that he was breathing on his own and that the readings they where getting where week but steady. In my mind I felt that I did what I could for Tony at the time but you always wonder if you could have done more, I just did what I had been trained to do and what I have trained many others to do under those circumstances. That is all anyone cans ask of you, some times the outcome will be good and other times the outcome may be not so good, but you have done your best to save a life and that is a good thing.
I have since found out that Tony died on the way to the hospital and my condolences go out to his family and loved ones.
As I sit here writing this I wounder if this is a good idea to publish this on my blog because there was a moment just after I found Tony lying there and the ambulance had been called that I felt like just walking away and leaving it to the experts, but I just could not do it I had to try and do what ever I could to help.
So if you ever wonder about the merits of doing an EFR course you never know when you might be in a position to help a stranger or even a member of your family.
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