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  • Essay / Emergency Medical Preparedness Essay - 1562

    If a person is dying and there are no medical professionals around, the layman must know how to react if he wants to save a life. Knowing how to save someone's life seems like something everyone would want to know how to do, but studies by the American Heart Association show that "70% of Americans may feel helpless to act during an emergency." heart because they do not know how to administer CPR or their training has been significantly disrupted” (AHA). Also in a survey conducted at Bellevue East High School, it was found that more than 80% of respondents had no training or certification in CPR and first aid. This is a major problem because “nearly 383,000 out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrests occur each year, and 88% of cardiac arrests occur at home” (AHA). Such a small percentage of people trained compared to a large number of emergencies shows how important CPR training is in preparing to save a life. However, CPR is not the only important thing to do in a medical emergency. Basic first aid skills such as splints, abdominal thrusts, seizure protocol, extreme bleeding protocol, allergic reaction protocol, and heat/cold protocol are equally essential in saving a person's life. person other than CPR. A person never knows when they might find themselves in a situation like that of Josh Holt or Keith Hadley, where vital skills such as those described above might come into play.