Going Through A First Aid and CPR Training Course

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Hey Everybody! How's it going? Hope you all are awesomely well! Another cool and interesting story from the life archives of Leigh Dickey, Entertainer Extraordinaire and www.leightdickey.com. Going back to my days in high school with this one. When I was in the 11th grade, I had to enroll and take a first aid and CPR class because I had a summer job as a camp counsellor lined up and in order to get the job, I had to take the class. So I found a local class in Toronto, went to enroll, and take the class, which lasted one day. When I went to enroll, it was in the fall, around September-October, I was thinking that the class I was enrolling in would probably take place and happen within a week, maybe two. NOPE! Didn't quite work that way! I enroll, sign up, pay the fee, and the receptionist who was booking these first aid and CPR classes tells me that the earliest class that I can take happens in the winter, sometime between January and March, of the upcoming year. Needless to say, I WAS NOT HAPPY! I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I had gone to enroll in a first aid and CPR class in September-October, and the earliest class they have available is between January-March, of the upcoming year! Still to this day it makes no sense to me! Fast forward about four to five months, I go to the class, which is located in a REALLY SMALL unit within a GIANT office building in downtown Toronto. I remember that it was SUPER, SUPER COLD, the snow was coming down from all directions, blowing all over the place, it was ABSOLUTELY FREEZING the day this first aid and CPR class took place! Back then, that's what was called a typical Canadian winter!


I walk into the building, take the elevator to, I think the fourth or sixth floor, read the signs to find the unit this class is supposed to be taking place in, find the unit, walk into that room, which is SUPER, SUPER, TINY, it looked liked the unit had been used as a studio apartment at one point, it was ABSOLUTELY TINY! It amazed me at the time, even to this day that about 15 to 20 people squeezed into that room and went through the first aid and CPR training as well as we did. So, there were about 15 to 20 people in this class, the instructor comes in, introduces himself, explains what will take place during the class, throughout the course of the day, we go through some techniques and procedures like how to approach someone if you suspect they need assistance of any kind, checking for injuries, a pulse, taught us various ways to perform the Heimlich maneuver, and then tells everyone to pair off with someone and partner up. The thing about the instructor wanting everyone to partner up and pair off was it had a catch, he wanted no opposite sex pairings, so it had to be two men working together or two women working together, which was fine. Truthfully, even though I was probably around 16 years at the time, I just wanted to receive my first aid and CPR certificate, get out of there, and go home! At the time that all had to pair off, I was one of the last ones, if not the very last one to find a partner, and the thing about that was, I didn't approach my partner for the day, they approached me. This girl came up to me and asked if I wanted to work together, I said sure, knowing that the instructor didn't want to see any opposite sex pairings because I really just wanted to get the day over and done with. With that, this girl and I started working together and going through the motions, techniques, and procedures that we were just taught, I can barely a word out before the instructor approaches me, and tells me to move and go work with this guy, to keep in theme with what he wanted. Again, it was fine, as I just wanted to get the day over with. I then move over introduce myself to this man I was now paired up with and we start going through the paces of what we've just been taught. It was INTERESTING to say the least. The man that I was now partnered with was not from Canada, I think he was from Pakistan or Shri Lanka, and I knew that there was going to be a SERIOUS language issue, and there's nothing wrong with that, the guy was trying to understand me, I was trying to understand him, we just had to make the best with what we had. We start going through the sequences of first aid and CPR, but the thing is, we weren't actually supposed to do the maneuvers, like the compression of someone's chest when performing CPR, or the compression of someone's stomach when performing the heimlich, this actually performed the compressions as hard as he could on me, I was getting annoyed, kept telling him to stop, we weren't supposed to ACTUALLY perform the maneuvers, but again, there was the language barrier to contend with. I then had to get the instructor to intervene and talk to this guy, so the instructor and my partner left the room for a few minutes, hashed out the details of what we, the students were supposed to do, and re-entered the room about 10 to 15 minutes later. Once they returned, the instructor moved me to work with someone else again, probably as a safety precaution, and he began to work with the man who was my partner, so for the remainder of that session of mimicking the heimlich and CPR maneuvers, I was partnered with someone else, made it through the rest of the day, performed CPR, the heimlich, and checking for injuries on a rubber dummy, then went through a written portion to finally get the first aid and CPR certificate. The written part and exam was pretty much, for the most part, multiple choice, and at that time, nothing I wasn't used to because I was in high school and that is how the majority of our tests and exams were conducted at the time. I remember handing in the written portion to the instructor, he quickly marks everyone's tests, and we all passed... YAY! We all formed a line, walked up to get our first aid and CPR certificate, and when I was handed this folded paper looking thing, I couldn't quite wrap my head around it. It looked like 2 tickets that you would see at a school carnival or out of a Chuckee Cheese game, and I just felt ripped off a bit, it was really underwhelming, having gone through a full day, nearly getting severely hurt on multiple occasions, the constant moving around, I was ready to check out and go home. So, I said thank you, signed the certificate, and left. It was one helluva day, quite the experience, and I was just happy that it was over. That's the story of me going through a first aid and CPR class. I hope you all enjoyed it, and if you like what you see and hear, then PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL to keep up with my latest releases and goings on. Thanks everybody! Talk to you all again soon.


Cheers,


Leigh