17. Learn CPR
CW: A death.
On a walk through Prospect Park, I came across a woman who was dying. I have seen people who are dead and dying before in the street, almost always surrounded by EMTs. There is a callousness that folks who live in densely populated areas develop. With so many humans around, you’ll see them in all sorts of situations, up to and including their last moments on earth. I do not want to die in public, but it could pretty easily happen in NYC. This woman’s situation upset me in a different way than I have experienced before, and I’m not sure exactly why. Maybe it’s because I’m older. Maybe it’s because there has been such an increase in images of death, stories of disaster and loss, horror all around. Maybe it’s just because she reminded me of myself: laid out on the Prospect Park loop, seemingly fallen at random in the middle of a walk or bike up the hill. Nearby, a bicycle was held up by a kickstand, quietly waiting to see if it would be ridden again.
The bike could have belonged to one of the many onlookers gathered to watch her fight for her life. Many people had stopped, though a few intrepid cyclists continued to weave through the crowd and continue on their journey. Several people were on their phones. Her body was jerking under the weight of a man attempting to give her CPR. That is what unsettled me the most—this feeling that whatever they were doing to her wasn’t quite right, even though there were a few people trying to make it work. One person was at her feet grasping her ankles, clad in purple leggings, and shaking them like he was trying to wake her up. It was the powerlessness of the moment, wanting to help and not knowing what to do and getting the feeling that none of us knew, no matter how we tried to recreate what we’ve seen on screen in TV and movies.
I was praying and I could hear the ambulance. The sirens went on and on and on and no vehicle appeared. Each moment was a moment where it seemed less likely she would be saved, okay, whole, ever again.
Finally, the ambulance appeared, followed by a fire truck. I kept walking. I didn’t want to see what else would happen now. By the time I exited the park through Grand Army Plaza, the fire truck was leaving again, too. The ambulance did not follow.
One of the harsher realities of growing up is realizing how unlikely it is that you can depend on the world to catch you if you fall down in the metaphorical street. In just the last four years, there has been a dramatic shift in understanding of how ill-prepared all systems of government and power are for true emergency. I’ve certainly noted how broken most systems are in terms of healthcare, housing, organising, wealth distribution, carceral systems, etc. etc. etc…but it just all snapped together into a web of ineptitude and corruption it feels like I’m caught in, along with everyone I love and everyone who is a stranger to me.
On the other hand, I’ve witnessed some really amazing things that regular people can do for their communities when shit hits the fan. During 9/11, during Hurricane Sandy, during far more minor but immediate emergencies, a lot of people step up. While I do feel a sense of impending doom that may bear out in the next few decades, I also have a lot of faith in the people around me. I know that sounds delusional, given most of us won’t even wear masks indoors anymore, but I do think that it’s possible to survive whatever is about to come.
Meanwhile, this specific event had me wondering why I was almost 40 and still so useless. So I signed up for a CPR and first aid class.
These courses are required for certification in all sorts of professions. An interesting fact I learned is that if you randomly give someone CPR without certification, and they’re injured in some way, you are not protected by the Good Samaritan laws. After taking this course, I am legally allowed to pound on someone’s chest in an emergency for the next two years, at which point I’ll have to take a skills test again. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
I assumed the course would be crowded with people fulfilling work obligations, but I arrived at the building close to the Parkside Q train stop to find I was the only person in the class! This has happened to me before, weirdly, I think because we are collectively giving up on learning. Instructors, however, usually are enthusiastic enough about the material to see it through. This was true of Liam, who was entirely too qualified to be wasting his time with me. We shut ourselves into the massive classroom and he opened up his slideshow, explaining that he’d been a combat medic and done multiple tours in Afghanistan and Ukraine and half a dozen other things I didn’t retain. I’ll never be comfortable with military culture, but I would definitely trust Liam to do everything in his power to save my life if necessary.
One of Liam’s favorite phrases throughout our three hours together was “it is what it is,” which he said after explaining all the ways that you might not be able to save someone or why you might have to do something disgusting to do so. One thing a lot of people don’t realise about CPR is that it almost always serves only as a stop gap before medical intervention. If someone has drowned, you might revive them through CPR and expelling water from their lungs. But if they’re in cardiac arrest or have stopped breathing for some other reason, what you’re doing is keeping oxygen pumping into their brain for hopefully long enough for medical professionals with syringes full of heart stimulating drugs to arrive. And most people, no matter their level of fitness, start to lose the power to effectively do CPR after two minutes. Two minutes.
That’s why it is ideal for many people to know CPR so you can trade off every two minutes and keep giving the patient your full power, pressing down two inches for about 100 to 120 times per minute, stopping every 30 seconds to give them two breaths. But it is possible to go on alone. Liam told me about administering CPR in a helicopter for 45 minutes straight. The only reason the patient wasn’t brain dead is because the helicopter was equipped with pure oxygen to pump into his lungs at the same time, versus doing mouth-to-mouth on a subway platform.
If you are on a subway platform, the local kiosk may have an AED. AEDs are the easiest version of a defibrillator, which we also went over how to use. We talked about the Heimlich (a word he was not allowed to use as the proprietary owners of the Heimlich want royalties for the name), how to treat someone in shock, seizures, infant CPR, overdoses, burns, strokes, allergic reactions, splints, wound care, and tourniquet application. A common thread in many of these scenarios was that you might not be able to do much, but you should do whatever you can.
He then told me an interesting story when we were discussing packing wounds about being bitten on the butt by a brown recluse spider and not realising how serious it was for two days, at which point a golf-ball sized hole became a permanent mark on his posterior. Liam told me he gets paid $3,600 every month because of this injury.
“Wow,” I said. “If I got bit by a brown recluse spider, I’d just have a huge hospital bill.”
Annoyed, he replied, “Everyone says that.”
I am glad that he gets the money, because he admitted he gets paid less to teach CPR courses and mostly does it because he enjoys it. Liam was patient with my many questions, even though as he pressed buttons on his computer for the slideshow he started getting sharp static shocks and it felt like I was literally torturing him. But he kept calling me “ma’am,” so it was mutual.
We wrapped things up and I headed home. I decided to walk through the park as the sun was low in the sky, sending out the last feeble rays of a winter afternoon. The walk brought me past the spot where I’d seen the woman on the ground, memory drawing her outline.
Liam told me about KAHN Academy which I’ve never heard of and they seem to have pretty much every kind of course imaginable online, including survival courses.
But you can start with a CPR class!
What do you think the most important skills to have are for community safety and community building?