After a tragic drowning incident that saw a Roodepoort family lose their beloved child in 2019, Marcel Weyer, owner of Medibaby and an Advanced Life Support Paramedic, decided that the community needed to know more about life-saving.
The initial plan was to offer a free cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) demonstration in November 2019, but it was subsequently decided that since it was so close to the end of the year, the turn-out might not be that good. “Last year there was a post by a member who had attempted CPR on a child that drowned. So we tried to organise a demo to show the community how to do CPR, but the year was nearly done,” said Marcel.
That is why the demonstration was moved to Saturday, 15 February. Community members throughout Roodepoort were asked to attend to learn the basics of CPR; a very important piece of knowledge as it could help save someone’s life. Marcel, who has 10 years of experience in this field, held the demonstration to teach people what to do until an ambulance arrives.
A notice was posted on a Roodepoort community Facebook group, asking residents to RSVP and book their place for the 9am demonstration. So many replies were received that it was necessary to hold a second demonstration at 11am on the same day.
A group of 13 residents joined Marcel for the 9am demonstration at the Roodekrans Lapa Park. The turnout for the second group was slightly less with only five adults and two children, but Marcel made sure to teach them as best he could.
Before the physical demonstration started, Marcel gave the attendees some background on CPR and how it has changed over the years to make it more efficient. He mentioned that the abbreviation ABC had been used for the CPR steps before, which stood for Airways, Breathing and Compressions/ Circulation. This method and abbreviation have since been changed to CAB because humans can go a little longer without breathing than without circulation. The main aim is to perform the compressions in order to get the patient’s blood flowing to the vital organs again. He also mentioned that CPR should only be performed on a person who is unresponsive and shows no signs of life.
Before starting CPR, make sure an ambulance has been called so that professionals can attend to the victim and provide advanced life support interventions. Once this is done, you need to check if the person is responsive. Try everything you can to make sure, even if it involves pinching the victim to try and wake him/ her up.
Marcel said that chest compressions should be done at a rate of 100 to 120 compressions a minute, meaning two per second. An easy way to remember this pace, ironically, is to perform compressions to the tune of Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees.
He gave several other helpful tips as well, such as:
• Never perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on a non-family member because even if it is your friend, you do not know the person’s medical history
• Use the CPR mouthpiece on a non-family member only if you are trained to do so
• If you are not trained, or are a bit rusty, stick to compressions until the ambulance arrives
• Turn the person on their side so that they do not choke on vomit or water
• Be wary, during compressions, as the victim tends to vomit or spit up
• Make sure your arms are straight and rigid when doing compressions, use your body weight to push down. Rather push too hard than not hard enough
To find out more about CPR, or to enquire about demonstrations and courses, visit www.medibaby.co.za or email info@medibaby.co.za. CPR is an extremely useful skill that can literally save lives, so if you have the opportunity to learn, please do it.
