Ahhh...The Cottage Life!

This morning I was awakened at 7:30 by a neighbor, a couple of doors down from me, who was pounding on the glass in my front door.

When I, in my pajamas, opened the door the neighbour asked me to come quickly as her 93 year old mother had collapsed. Why me? It was a skill she knew I had and that was Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. I put on my shoes, I asked her if she had called for an ambulance and she said yes. I went to her house opened up the door and followed her into a back room. As I went into the room I saw an elderly woman lying on the floor of her bedroom.
I checked for a pulse and there wasn't one. I rechecked that the ambulance had been called and started into CPR. The neighbour knew how to give ventilations so I had her help out with that. After a few minutes I had the neighbour go and check if the ambulance had arrived as being out in the country sometimes you have to flag them down. She yelled back they were just arriving so I said to lead them in.
The medics came in and asked if I was alright while they set up, which is the usual format. I said I was and to continue setup of the defibrillator and the oxygen delivery system. Two more medics showed up to assist at this time.
After a couple of more minutes the paramedics took over and I was free to go to the neighbour and help out. The Police had arrived as well by this time and were asking a few questions. I also wanted to keep the neighbour out side on the porch so she did not have to see all of what was going on with her Mom. The police had the same idea and so we stayed with her outside but you could see through the screen what the Paramedics were doing inside so she wasn't entirely out of the loop.
The medics worked on the elderly lady for about 15 minutes at which time she had not responded to treatment and still was not breathing and had no heart beat. The female Paramedic came out and spoke very kindly to the neighbour informing her that her mother had not responded to any of the treatments they had tried and had passed away. The neighbour thanked the Paramedics for all their help. The police had phoned the husband of the neighbour and he arrived at this time as well. I took my leave after giving my condolences and offering any other help if needed.
As I walked back to my house, still in my pajamas (I was the only one in pajamas) I hoped they were going to be OK. She had passed away very quickly so there is no time to get used to the idea and it tends to hit you like a lead ball a later. I will check on them later and see if I can help.

What has this got to do with the cottage life? Everything! I believe EVERYONE should know how to provide CPR. I was a paramedic for several years and I saw first hand the difference it can make. CPR pushes the oxygen in the blood around in the arteries to provide oxygen to the vital organs. CPR does not always start the heart beating again but it buys time for the casualty so the possibility that the defibrillator and/or cardiac drugs will work. This works best and gives the best chance for survival if CPR is applied to keep the organs alive by providing that oxygen! Some situations, like this one it is too late to help but it is tried any way. It also gives the relatives time to start to reason what is going on, time to start to grieve. Most of the time though it does help and in fact is the only hope that more can be done for them.

The only way to our cottage is by boat. A lot of cottages and homes are isolated and it would take some time to get an ambulance into these areas. Knowing CPR can make all the difference. There are many ways to learn CPR. You can even learn it online now. Learn CPR. You could save a life!

Listed below are the 4 easy steps for adult CPR.