I Know The Heimlich Too

I stayed over at Paul's last night and rode the Orange line in to work today. As we were waiting for the train I was giving him grief for only riding one stop with me thinking "I really should have grabbed an Express - now I'll be bored the rest of the way" (see earlier post about riding on trains). Be careful what you complain about. Right before we pulled into the next stop a man passed out and stopped breathing. We hit the red emergency button and told the driver there was a passenger emergency. A gentleman asked if anyone knew CPR. I've been CPR certified since I was about 10 years old (and they mocked me for being a Red Cross Certified Babysitter - thanks Girl Scouts). I've taken a number of refresher courses over the years, but the last was about 3 years ago and I've never performed it on anything living. Until this morning. I threw off my bags, had them lay him on the floor, couldn't find any hint of a pulse and enlisted a big man to do chest compressions while I did the breathing. He was taking maybe 1 of every 3 breaths I was giving him and there was a rattling in his throat. Adding to the pressure was his wife of probably 50+ years watching while her husband slowly turned blue. I have to say she was the calmest of us all. About 10 minutes later the EMTs showed up and took over with the defibrilator. They worked on him for another 10 minutes or so. It looked like he had a heartbeat. I'm going to believe he did since GW hospital wouldn't give me any information when I called.

CPR training courses are offered by the American Heart Association (for training courses near you call 1-800-AHAUSA1), the American Red Cross and by many local fire departments. I highly recommend taking one. You never know when you're going to need it and it only takes a few hours of your time.