First Aid Classes

If you ever have a reason, big or small, for taking a simple first aid class…please TAKE IT! You never know when you will use something you learned in that class.
For me, it was last night in my hotel room that I was a ‘first responder’…basically the first person on the scene of a person with a medical emergency.
10 minutes after we turned off the light to go to sleep, I heard my roommate making some interesting sounds (kind of like sleep-talking). But when I called her name, she did not respond and the noises got stranger. I called her name louder and reached over to shake her when I felt the entire bed shaking. I leaped over, turned on the light, and was witness to the first real-life seizure that I have ever seen.
This was where the simple instructions they tell you in First Aid Class come right to the surface of your thoughts. Turn victim on their side, don’t put anything in their mouth, don’t hold them down…just make sure they are not hitting anything that could cause injury.
After I got over my own screaming…I was able to grab the bed-side-phone and try to reach some USAT staff doctors. Unfortunately, because I had been sick all day and my roommate had just arrived, we were the only two people who chose early sleep over a birthday dinner party. The hotel reception desk was the only answer I got and I yelled for a doctor and an ambulance.
In a few minutes, three hotel ‘managers’ arrived in the room and said a doctor/ambulance was on-its-way. I was still at my roommate’s side on her bed and was asked three times by one of the hotel staff “Did you take any drugs?” “What did you take?” “Are you sure?” It was very degrading and I was slightly humiliated to be in that situation and have to answer the same question multiple times!
I was still in a panic but managed to remember that I have a “world phone” (BIG thanks to my Dad for paying for this option) and I could call our team staff at the dinner party. When our trainer (also an EMT) answered her phone, I was able to get out one long sentence about what happened and what was going on before I broke down into sobs and she hung up to start sprinting back to the hotel. Within 5 minutes, six members of the Elite staff were coming down the fourth floor hallway toward our room and my ‘first responder’ duties were complete.
My adrenaline was pumping so high at that point (8:30pm) that I felt better than I had all day with my own illness issues (24 hours of food poisoning). Eventually, the ambulance arrived and they took my roommate to the local hospital. I returned to my room to calm down and try again to get to sleep.
Today…I am feeling 100% better and glad that I only had a 24 hour problem. I have plenty of time to recover before my race. Unfortunately, my roommate is not so lucky and remains in the hospital getting tests to try and find a reason for the random seizure. She was told that she is going to spend another night in the hospital and will not be cleared to race on Saturday afternoon.
In the end, the only thing I hope this blog post has accomplished is to encourage one reader to go take a simple First Aid Class. They are cheap, short, and obviously very, very, VERY useful!!