 |
|
| Supplement |
|
|
Click banner to download supplements in PDF version.
This may take a few minutes.
|
|
|
| |
General News |
|
|
|
Suburban writer saves woman's life
By Joel Goldenberg, The Suburban
|
|
|
Photo by Martin Chamberland, The Suburban
|
|
Mark Lidbetter
|
|
|
|
More people should be trained in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, because situations where CPR is desperately and quickly needed can arise at any time, says Pointe Claire resident Mark Lidbetter.
$"/>
$"/>Lidbetter, sports coordinator at The Suburban, knows that better than most. He was working at his full-time job at the IGA in Côte St. Luc’s Cavendish Mall Saturday afternoon when he was alerted by a co-worker that a woman had collapsed. Lidbetter, who also coaches and referees, has been trained in CPR ever since his days as a lifeguard, and was recertified a year and a half ago as part of a CSST course.
$"/>
$"/>“I was trained as a first responder,” he explained Monday. “When I got to the end of the cashes, there was a woman on the floor, and when I got to her, she had no pulse. The store director, Daniel Kraft, called 9-1-1 and I started to apply CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
$"/>
$"/>“About eight or nine minutes after I started doing it, [Côte St. Luc’s Emergency Medical Services] arrived. I gave way to them. Urgences Santé arrived and they both worked on her, they got her into the ambulance. Later, I was sitting down having my lunch — and you always wonder if you did any good. Two gentlemen from EMS come over and shook my hand, and said they were able to re-establish a pulse and they were working on her at the hospital.”
$"/>
$"/>Lidbetter said not enough people are trained in CPR.
$"/>
$"/>“If you collapse in the United States on any street corner in any town, you have maybe a one in three chance of someone knowing CPR,” he said. “Here, it’s [less of a chance].”
$"/>
$"/>He also pointed out that if someone’s heart has stopped for a long time, oxygen is lost and permanent brain damage or brain death can occur.
$"/>
$"/>“It’s important to have someone there within the first 10 minutes, within the Golden Hour when they go to the hospital. CPR is something you’re trained in, that you never want to have to use. And if the time comes, you wonder ‘will I react, will I do it right?’ I was proud I was able to react and respond in that way.”
$"/>
$"/>Lidbetter added that, the day before the incident, he heard of a report where there is a higher incidence of heart attacks just before the holidays.
$"/>
$"/>“People should give themselves a gift by training in CPR.”
$"/>
$"/>And as former Côte St. Luc EMS director Hal Newman recently wrote in The Suburban, automatic defibrillators in public buildings are vitally needed to more quickly save lives.
$"/>
$"/>Stéphane Kallos, current director of EMS in Côte St. Luc, agrees about the importance of learning CPR. He points out that the possibility of brain damage can even start at the four-minute point.
$"/>
$"/>“Every second counts at the moment of a cardiac arrest, and much as EMS responds quickly, there’s always going to be a few minutes before we arrive. The quicker CPR is done, the less likely there is to be any permanent damage to the brain or to the heart, and the better the chances of a defibrillator shock working. Much of defibrillators are great, if no one is doing CPR, often a shock can’t work if a heart has been deprived of oxygen too long. The faster someone is doing CPR on the spot, and the faster a shock can be given, the chances of survival are greater — 10 percentage chances are lost every minute until a shock is given, but if CPR is being given, we only lose five to seven percent per minute.”
|
2007-12-12 09:23:09
Write your comments:
|
|
|
![]()
|
| Visit these sites |
|
|
|
|
