“Mas maayo na lang nang naa tay nahibaw-an nga dili magamit , kay sa wala tay kahibaw sa panahon nga nay panginahanglan mag-gamit.”
Tagbilaran City Mayor John Geesnell Yap II gave this as opening message and welcome address to the hundreds who came to the City Hall Atrium as the City Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Council (CDRRMC under Gerard Lavadia, partners with paramedics for a hands only mass training on cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR), July 17.
City Mayor Yap along with his close in security and some city hall officials also signed in for the training which the Philippine College of Physicians Bohol Chapter official Dr. Angelito Lechago hopes would help put up a Philippine record for the most number of trained individuals in CPR for a day.
Earlier that day, some 1,500 students and faculty members of the Bohol Wisdom School joined the training which equipped evey the young kids the necessary working skills to save life during when someone has a cardiac arrest.
Yap, who said his wife has also signed in but was still tied up with an appointment at that time said, “lucky sila ug akong wife kay malakuwas ko nila, but dili sila makaluwas nako,” Yap said in jest.
A few minutes later, the mayor’s wife Jane, walked in and joined in the training.
The training also coincides with the national simultaneous mass training on the most basic life support to help curb the leading cause of death that the country faces.
According to Bohol Medical Society president Dr. Jane Ramiro, cardiac arrest has been among the leading causes of death in the country, and that sudden cardiac arrest can be remedied if the proper resuscitation can be done within the first few minutes when a person collapses and stops breathing.
CPR is the emergency procedure, not necessarily done by medical professionals, but possibly by trained individuals whoc can perform the necessary and proper chest compressions to help the circulation of oxygen from the heart to the brain and other parts of the body to preserve the brain functions.
It would only take between four to six minutes of oxygen deprivation and some brain cells would die, which can be catastrophic to the cardiac arrest victim, Dr. Ramiro explains to the volunteers and city hall officials and employees eagerly signing up for the life support training.
Always check the environment and the surroundings before performing CPR, she said, chances are, there might be falling objects and this could complicate the situation.
Check the victim’s responsiveness, if he is breathing and is far from any other danger
Other CPR practitioners also recommend to check on the airway, breathing before doing the necessary compression, while some insist that it is compression, airway and breathing, or the reverse order.
Before starting the compressions however, Dr. Ramiro said the responder must call for help, as the compressions can only be temporary until the emergency responders with defibrillators can take over and perform the necessary steps to save the life in the medical emergency.
For hands only CPR, Ramiro instructed everyone who had prepositioned themselves beside a dummy: “Kneel beside the victim.”
Interlock your fingers and while making sure that the elbows are fully stretched, place the heel of your hand between the ribcage and the sternum, she went on, as the volunteers who filled the entire atrium also did as told.
“Start the compression at the rate of 100 to 120 per minute, pushing with the body on stretched elbows two inches deep,” her voice reverberated in the hall.
Follow the rhythm, she said as Beegees “Staying Alive,” played on the loudspeakers installed for the occasion.
That afternoon, an estimated 500 volunteers, employees and officials completed the mass CPR training. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)