AED Training: “We Saved A Life!”

Every year, some City of Ottawa staff are required to renew their AED qualifications in case there is an emergency.  And every year I say the same thing, “why are they spending so much money on training we will most likely never use?”  Don’t get me wrong, I understand the importance of AED training.  I would just tell myself that as long as one staff on site has the training we’re good.

I’ve been a City of Ottawa employee for 7 years in the recreation field teaching hockey, basketball, supervising public skates, even working with the city’s beach volleyball leagues.  But not once have I ever had to perform any major first aid, let alone CPR.

A Day I’ll Never Forget

Tuesday August 2^nd was a day I’ll never forget.  What started off as a day where I was supposed to leave work early turned into arguably the most important day of my life.  I walked to the staff room around the rink like I would after any other day.  I made it as far as the arena doors before I knew something was wrong.  When I walked through the rink I saw a player laying on the ice with teammates surrounding him.  As anybody who plays hockey knows, it can be a tough and physically demanding sport.  Seeing somebody laying on the ice isn’t anything new and seeing people surrounding him lead me to believe he possibly suffered a bad leg or head injury and needed a minute to get up.  It wasn’t until I heard the words “911” and “defib” that I knew something was wrong.

Springing Into Action

Without any thought, I ran down the hall with skates on at a speed I never thought was even possible.  It’s amazing how fast instincts kick in during an emergency and it’s almost as if my mind went on auto-pilot.  Considering the situation I was dealing with, I don’t think I could have been calmer.  All the training from the past 7 years kicked in instantly and at that point it was all about following the steps.

Teamwork Works

When I arrived on the scene with the defibrillator it was time to put my training into action.  It had been approximately 1 minute since the gentleman collapsed on the ice which is a pretty fast response time when dealing with cardiac arrest and the faster CPR can be performed the better chance a person will have at survival with hopefully minimal health complications.  Luckily when I arrived on the ice, one of the players’ girlfriends who also knew CPR was there.  There was also another teammate involved in the process.  Without much thought I took the lead, giving breaths while coaching the teammate through compressions while the lady set up the defibrillator.  The whole process took between 3-4 minutes but it felt like an eternity.  After a couple minutes of CPR the AED determined that a shock was needed.

Once the shock was given, we continued CPR until the gentleman began breathing very shallowly, but on his own.  What a relief!  We were far from out of the woods but seeing the man conscious and breathing after having no vitals was one of the best feelings I have ever experienced.  At that point it was about remaining calm and reassuring the gentleman that he would be ok while waiting for paramedics.

Once the paramedics arrived and our job was done, I had to thank everyone involved in the process, especially the woman who helped out with the defibrillator.

Save A Life – Get Certified

Now back to my earlier point about the importance of AED training…

Having somebody else with me who knew what they were doing as well was very reassuring and almost calming.  I can’t help but wonder if the whole process would have gone as smoothly if it was just me with the training without the help of those around me.

Now when I think about it, I understand why the city retrains their employees every year.  The more people who know what to do, the better chance somebody will have at saving a life at work, in public, or wherever necessary.  I’m 100% convinced that this man survived because training kicked in and we followed the steps.

We saved a life!