February is National Heart Health Month. And, for those that haven’t been paying attention, my lovely wife and I are expecting kid two in about a month. So, in preparation for that event, we decided to take a CPR/First Aid class. The hospital requires one if the baby is under a certain weight (I think that he has already passed that weight, and he isn’t out yet…) before the parents can bring the child home. We did a class before Garrett (kid one) was born, and even in the short four years since, there have been changes in techniques, technologies and best practices.
Gail being the veteran planner set up a course with a local instructor. The curriculum included children’s First Aid, AED usage, and CPR for adults, children and infants. The class was about 4 1/2 hours… with a small class (three of us). The great thing for us was that we were able to clear a spot at the house and have the class here.
The instructor was David Scott (not the Congressman), and he is certified by the American Heart Association as the Red Cross.
I have had these classes previously. In addition to the children and infant CPR, my 4wd club has an Automatic External Defibrillator and we’ve held classes for its use. Unfortunately, my adult first aid training is pretty old… but not any more.
The price of the class was very reasonable. Even with the small group size, it was under $60/person… and way more convenient than driving 45 minutes to get to the class. 
If you are interested in getting up to date on the latest in first aid… which I recommend to EVERYONE… just do it. David owns and operates CPR First and can be reached at DScottCPRFirst at aol.com (address modified for the benefit of the spam bots… use the @ instead of “at”). Shoot me a message through my contact form if you would like his phone number.
As James Dean said in his traffic safety PSA back in the 1950s, the life you save may be mine. Hopefully I won’t need it, though. In fact, I would hope that nobody really needs to ever use any of this training, but we should all prepare in case there is a need.
Enjoy the game tomorrow… I’ll probably talk about some commercials Monday…
Get Free Updates
Pete Weisberg wrote,
Hi,
I noticed from your blog that your organization covers safety related issues. As such, I wanted to let you know of our product and company Safety Magnets™. My hope is that you can suggest some ways to promote this very important product on your Blog.
Safety Magnets™ are refrigerator magnets that list first aid steps on what to do in common medical emergencies. Safety Magnets™ are a must have for all caregivers including new moms and dads, teachers, day care providers, the elderly and baby sitters.
Currently, we offer a Safety MagnetsTM Magnetic Memo Board and a 5″ X 7″ CPR Safety MagnetTM. The CPR Safety MagnetsTM have been mostly used by businesses and organizations such as fire departments, urgent care centers, real estate agents, and others as a promotional product. The Magnetic Memo Board is typically used by parents and caregivers.
To date, we have sold about 8,000 Safety MagnetsTM, and we were also just recently featured in Arizona Parenting Magazine, 5MinutesForMom.com, and Good Morning Arizona.
Thank you again for your consideration. I’d appreciate any feedback or suggestions you can provide.
Pete Weisberg
Safety Magnets
Peter.Weisberg@SafetyMagnets.com
888-287-7130
http://www.SafetyMagnets.com
**HAVE YOU SEEN US ON GOOD MORNING ARIZONA? ** CHECK US OUT AT http://www.safetymagnets.com/pr.html
Safety Magnets is a subsidiary of the Rasey-Nickell Group L.L.C., a wholly women owned company.
Link | March 18th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
LIFELINE wrote,
Congratulations on taking the first step in ensuring your family’s safety!
So many people are under the false impression that they shouldnt do CPR because they might not know all the steps so accurately, but the truth is ANYTHING is better than NOTHING!
The best way to improve your confidence in performing CPR is to take a course!
It can’t be stressed enough how important it is for people to learn CPR…especially parents…when minutes can mean the difference between life and death it makes a huge impact for such easy steps!
I am an EMS worker for the city of New York and I can’t explain how many times we get a call for a child who drowned or choked on a toy and passed out and how greatly it would improve that childs survival rate if someone on scene knew how to do CPR until our ambulance got there!
I know it might seem like a daunting tasks but there are so many resources out there to learn CPR hands on so you can feel comfortable and competent when an emergency arises…
I feel so strongly about people empowering themselves with the knowledge and the skills of CPR that i started a CPR training company called LIFELINE RESCUE TRAINING…its a small business but i focus on working around the customers time schedule and I make sure we come to you…
We cater to families and high schools with people who just want to learn CPR not only for themselves but for their family and friends…cause when minutes count you want to make sure that you have the capability to prevent an emergency from becoming a tragedy…
I offer helpful information on infant and child CPR on my website
http://WWW.LIFELINERESCUETRAINING.COM
Link | March 24th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Jonathan wrote,
I do agree that First aid knowledge is very important and a very valuable course to learn. As the common saying goes, “It is better to know first aid and note need it rather than need first aid and not know it”. I have been working in the rescue unit of our city for about 13 years starting a a volunteer until becoming a full time paramedic. I have started with training programs on first aid and cpr with my training center Basic Lifesaving Solutions. I was really impressed by you and your family having this safety and training program and decided to post this comment. Keep up the good work and may you continue to spread the knowledge of saving lives!
http://www.basiclifesaving.org
Link | April 24th, 2008 at 11:37 am