A life-changing moment my dad Jaime recently experienced – forcing a man’s heart to restart – underscores the need to make cardiopulmonary resuscitation and first aid a part of every Canadian high school’s curriculum.
He was closing the Mississauga office he manages with another employee in September when the man suddenly collapsed. My dad saw the man fall to his side, bang his head on a wall and again on the back of a desk.
The man had stopped breathing.
I took a CPR and first aid course because it was required at one of my workplaces but wasn’t part of my high school curriculum. I never thought I would use it, and I haven’t.
My dad, however, rushed to where the man was lying on the ground with a large wound on his head. He wasn't breathing.
Dad told me he immediately started chest compressions and called 911.
“While I was talking to the operator on the phone and giving her details about our location, I noticed he started breathing again and he slowly began to come to,” he said.
He later found out that the man had gone into cardiac arrest.
He said some people may think they will never have to perform CPR, but it can happen to anyone.
“Having helped the same person twice I am just happy that he’s alive and well. I wouldn’t have been able to do that if I had never been trained,” he said.
Dad voluntarily signed up for a first-aid course in high school three decades ago, at the time it wasn’t mandated.
‘I can't say how much I remember from back then because that goes back many years, but I can say that my instincts just kicked in,” he said.
St. Johns Ambulance Training Manager, Chris Schmied said in most cases CPR can be instinctual during life-threatening situations, even if their training wasn’t recent.
“I had a fire chief tell me, going back now 10 years, he said when somebody’s life is at risk in an accident and they survive, there is an overwhelming possibility that there was somebody trained, doing first aid, and that’s why they survive when they arrive,” he said.
Ontario's then-Minister of Education, David Johnson, mandated in 1999 that the province’s high schools have CPR training as a part of the physical education curriculum. It's also required in Alberta, Quebec and Manitoba high schools.
Despite being required, according to a study by the Canadian Cardiovascular Society only 56 per cent of Ontario high schools offer CPR and AED training, apparently because of a lack of funding.
Red Cross program advisor, former paramedic and Toronto district fire chief, Michael Nemeth said first responders are all trained in CPR.
“Even doing chest compressions is buying time,” he said. “If the person is choking, helping them with airway management by using back blows and abdominal thrusts is buying time until a professional responder gets there. And that can take anywhere from five to 15 minutes depending on where you are and how busy it is.”
Nemeth said many people have the perception that they will never have to use CPR. I used to think this.
“If your dad did nothing, I can guarantee you that person would not have survived,” Nemeth said.
My dad has been a hero more than once.
He not only saved the man’s life in September, but he also saved mine about 20 years ago. When I was a toddler, I was eating dinner with my parents, and I began choking on a smiley french fry. I couldn't breathe. My mom started screaming.
My dad immediately began back blows and abdominal thrusts.
After a couple of abdominal thrusts and back blows the food was dislodged from my throat and I could breathe again.
Though his training was many years ago he still knew exactly what to do. Life-saving skills can stick in your unconscious mind even many years later.
After my dad’s experience, I see things differently.
According to an Ipsos survey on behalf of the Canadian Red Cross 36 per cent of Canadian households have no one with first aid training.
However, if the mandate was properly applied this would close the gap and potentially save lives.
My dad didn’t think he would be saving someone's life 30 years later after taking that course, but if he hadn’t things may have been different.
