<p>Last night I got the dreaded 2 AM phone call. They were in an accident…one airlifted to hosp…another on his way in an ambulance…my d shaken and bruised but okay. All three wearing seatbelts…all discharged within hours and would be okay. My daughter safely asleep in her bed as I type. Thank god.</p>
<p>My d described a scene where she felt totally helpless as her friend lay on the ground unmoving. She said all she could do was scream for help. </p>
<p>How could I allow my kids to go 20 years without any basic first aid knowledge. When I was in HS we were all required to be certified in first aid. This happened in health class. We also could get certified as lifeguards in gym class. This was not the case for my kids. After Va. Tech I promised myself to get them educated. I let it get pushed off. No longer.</p>
<p>20 yrs ago my H and I held an infant CPR “party” at our home. 5 couples who were pregnant or had infants came to our home and were taught by the American Red Cross infant CPR and first aid. </p>
<p>This summer (asap) I will do the same for my kids and their close friends…first aid and CPR by the Red Cross at our home. All I need is a date. I will not push this off. </p>
<p>I write this only as a reminder and incentive to all of us parents so that our kids never have to feel completely helpless in a situation like this. I really feel as if I let down my daughter by not making sure she had some training.</p>
<p>I will not push this off. I hope this inspires some of you to follow suit.</p>
<p>That is a wonderful idea, Sax. I am so happy that your daughter and her friends are all OK. I am sure that all of them will feel more comfortable and more confident once they get CPR and first aid training. Maybe this weekend would be a good time for a relaxing day out to let your daughter unwind.</p>
<p>My kids always had first aid/cpr through scouts. My now 18 year old son used his first aid more than once, in one instance calling an ambulance and working with dispatcher on the phone while waiting for parents to get back home and the ambulance to get there.
A few years ago I discovered that a neighbor with a pool did not have CPR. Yikes. Several years ago a celebrity had a child at a birthday party drown in their pool. The news played the 911 tape and it was evident that if there had been ONE sober, trained person there, this child might have been saved. </p>
<p>So…here is another vote for doing it. I have had to be diligent to renew CPR/first aid now that my “kids” are out of the scouting program.l</p>
<p>Thank you. Definitly looking forward to some more hugs today.</p>
<p>ebeee: scouts are awesome for this but sadly neither of my kids stuck it out. It is great that your son is so well trained. It’s such basic knowledge that we should all have but so easy to forget about in the day to day stuff of life.</p>
<p>Great idea! You can get first aid/cpr training from your local Red Cross. Mine holds courses on Saturdays virtually every week, and it costs about $50. I just got certified a couple of weeks ago.</p>
<p>Cyber hugs to you Sax. I hope your D and her friends are doing OK.</p>
<p>What a great idea to have a CPR/first aid party at your house. My kids are both trained in both (lifeguard and one thought of being an EMT for a while) but I think they are both out of date. Think I will jog them to recertify.</p>
<p>Wow, that is scary stuff. Just by coincedence, my D was re-certified Sat. for CPR & Red Cross first aid.</p>
<p>Thank you for hosting the CPR “party” 20 years ago. 19 years ago I attended one (I was pregnant with my D), and I hope i thanked my hosts for graciously opening their home to us.</p>
<p>Good idea about a current “party” for the younger generation. </p>
<p>As mentioned, the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and the local Red Cross are three primary sources for first aid training. Additional sources, often free or at minimal cost include local YMCA’s, adult/continuing education courses through public schools, community centers or community colleges. There are even a few municipal fire and police departments that offer these courses (these tend to be once or twice a year offerings though from the ones I’ve seen).</p>
<p>Besides basic first aid and CPR, it’s smart to have training in the Heimlich maneuver as well. While it can be used effectively on an adult just by reading the procedure, without proper training and an overly aggressive performance, bruised or cracked ribs can be a result, but it’s better than choking.</p>
<p>There is a Heimlich manuever for infants and very small children, which is somewhat different and more delicate than the standard procedure.</p>
<p>Thanks for the comments and suggestions everybody. I had not thought about all the different places they could learn this. Thanks for listing them.</p>
<p>Within the last month my 17 yr. old neice finished up her CPR training for her life guard job. A week later she found her 9 mo. old neice blue and unable to breath and quickly used infant cpr to dislodge a piece of hotdog and save her life. Woulda thought that would have jarred me into action.</p>
<p>sax,
So happy to hear of good outcome in this instance! Good thoughts for a very speedy and total recovery for all vehicle occupants. My kids have mandatory first aid training in high school. A full trimester in lieu of regular phys. ed. classes. And weren’t we told never to give hotdogs to young children because of the very near tragedy you just described? :(</p>
<p>Sax, I’m so glad all the kids are all right. You are right my kids don’t know any first aid or CPR either. I had the former in Girl Scouts. The latter when a group of Caltech bio students arranged for a class with our eating group. I’m sure I could use a refresher for both though. Might be something we could all do this summer.</p>
<p>OMG, just saw this thread!!! How terrifying! I do hope that everyone ends up o.k.!</p>
<p>Thank G-d that your D was not seriously hurt. {{{{{hugs, sweetie}}}}}</p>
<p>I so admire you for using this unfortunate experience to make a positive contribution by way of helping to educate your kids and others. What a truly fabulous idea! I will try to follow suit, o.k.??</p>
<p>Please keep us posted on the condition of the other kids…and give your precious D an extra big squeeze tonight.</p>
<p>berurah,mathmon and momo3…thanks for the hugs and well wishes!</p>
<p>I have to admit making sure all the kids get first aid/cpr is somewhat motivated by pretty selfish reasons. If my kids are unconscious/injured I want the other kids to be able to help them too. All in all, the more the merrier.</p>
<p>My d is an emotional wreck and has had increasing physical complaints. I think she was just scared to death and is starting to realize the severity of the accident/ her luck in surviving it. The inexperienced driver swerved, hit a stone wall, went into a field and hit a tree head on. Car wrapped around the tree. Thank god for airbags and well built cars. </p>
<p>Luckily this group of kids does not drink. The police searched everything including another car of friends who witnessed the accident. Daughter says there was a case of emptys thrown on the roadside down the road and the police must have seen that and assumed it was theirs. Says the police were pretty “mean” until they saw that all the kids were sober.</p>
<p>We will go to the Dr. today and see whats up. Her emotional falling apart has caught me offguard a bit. And of course the younger brother who was off to the midnight showing of “Pirates” had to listen to 20 minutes of deer lectures and endure many extra hugs. Collateral damage :)</p>
<p>sax- My well wishes to your dd! Mine is afraid to consider driving now, as she was the driver in her accident, and is getting more neck symptoms, undoubtedly whiplash. </p>
<p>I so admire your idea of the first aid course- I should have thought of this as an opportunity for kids to learn those skills, and we will do the same thing!</p>
<p>Hard to get the image of that car out of my head…</p>
<p>Sax,
I was broasdsided by a cell-phone yakking lawyer who WAY overran a red light a few years ago, and while I declined a trip to the hospital immediately after the accident, the next day I felt like $%#@ and hauled myself in to the ER. Lots of bruising and muscle soreness from being knocked about. It got better after a day or two, but that second day was a big, scary surprise. I also had a lovely badge of honor across my chest – the strap from my seat belt. Six docs came in to see it and congratulate me on the bruise, and told me they tell their patients it’s the best injury they could ever hope for in a car accident.</p>
<p>Having a first aid party is an excellent idea. I had first aid in PE class in junior high, but my kids never have. Give that D of yours some tender hugs. I think my kids will have another activity to do this summer…</p>
<p>galwaymom: Hopefully your d feels better today. Maybe a few short trips to the store will bring her confidence back. You and I are so lucky that our kids survived and without serious injury. As horrible as this is I think it helps all the kids see how fast things can happen and the damage that is possible. Something that will stick with them along time. I remember as a young driver thinking if I ever got into trouble on the road I could put my seatbelt on while I was driving and all would be okay. What an idiot.</p>
<p>Counting down my daughter has your bruise of honor She did not go to the hospital either. Although she told me that they told her she was okay at the scene; the ER nurse told her friend that she apparently refused treatment. She has no memory of this. I always worry about people running red lights. My h and son missed a horrible accident by a split second when my h for some reason caught the speeder/red light runner in his side vision and was able to evade. You were really lucky to have come out of your accident with only a few bruises, huh.</p>
<p>So I have called the Red Cross and we are set to go. A big JUMP ON MY BANDWAGON to the rest of you :)</p>
<p>sax - thanks for starting this thread. Having basic knowledge of CPR and first aid is so incredibly important. Our local high school has an EMT training program and requires all graduating seniors to at least be certified in CPR. I think the CPR training is an excellent program.</p>
<p>For those of you that won’t be seeing your college students much over the summer and can’t squeeze anything more in, here’s another idea. Most colleges have some form of CPR/First Aid training available. (Some even offer it for physical education credit) If the school has an active relationship with a local ambulance company or a student EMS group, these organizations will often offer training for free or very cheap.</p>
<p>One thing you can teach your kids as well is the power of calm reassurance. Even in the worst of situations, letting an injured person know that you are right there with them and that you’ll make sure they are taken care of can work wonders. Calm reassurance will help relax both the rescuer and the injured person.</p>
<p>Best wishes for your kids that have been in recent accidents!</p>
<p>My broadsider ran the red by 13 seconds (I went back the next day and timed it) – I was the 5th car out of the intersection when he hit me!</p>
<p>Those deer scare me even more than the red light runners. We live in an area where the deer are being crowded out of their habitat and on to the roads – and every year, there are a few people who lose their lives trying to avoid hitting one on the back roads around here.</p>
<p>Would your D be receptive to a strategic driving class? That might give her some confidence on how to handle a car in dangerous situations in the future. Many hugs and well wishes!</p>
<p>My boys learned first aid and lifesaving in boy scouts and my daughter got certification through the red cross a couple of years ago. My oldest son was able to perform the Heimleich manuever on his grandfather a couple of years ago at Thanksgiving. </p>
<p>It’s occured to me more then once that for all the hours my kids have spent in health classes learning about sex, birth control and diseases at least a few hours should have been spent on first aid for the majority of kids that don’t do scouts.</p>
<p>As a nurse, I have been trained in first aid, CPR, AED, etc., but recently I was asked by my principal to take an instructor course at the local Red Cross so I could teach others in our school. The class was eight hours per day over a three day period, but I feel so very good after taking it. I feel confident that I can now teach my co-workers exactly what would need to be done in case of emergency. My DD recently asked if I would teach her, too. I think it is so very important for everyone to have at the very least some basic first aid training. Your local Red Cross is a wonderful resource.</p>
my daughter has your bruise of honor