Empowering Knowledge Everyone Should Learn

Hi everyone,

To me this is essential knowledge for us all and we never know when we are going to need to use it.

It's not that hard to learn either.

Basic First Aid including CPR and the Heimlich Maneuver.

I was fortunate to learn this while I was in the U.S. Marines. Semper Fidelis.

The Heimlich Maneuver is a simple to use method if someone is choking and you could just save their life.

In 2015 while I was walking I came across a crowd of people and there had been a single motorcycle accident. The man was still conscious, but he was bleeding from his forehead and there already was a pool of blood under his head. I covered the wound with a cloth and applied pressure to at least slow or stop the bleeding. Someone came with a truck and we carefully put the man in the back and I had someone else continue to put pressure on the wound and they went to the hospital.

Unlike in the USA, here in the Philippines even if an ambulance would arrive they are not going to assist you so its even more critical to know first aid.

I later learned the man was hospitalized for a week, but he did survive.

To me that's one of my greatest accomplishments in life and it affected him and everyone he interacted with for the rest of his life.

Another person's life I saved was my mother.

On July 4, 1996 my father died in his sleep.

A few weeks later my mom who had a history of asthma called 911 and said "Can't breathe" and nothing more.

A volunteer rescue squad member in the small town went directly to mom's apt and was able to get into the apt.

Mom was laying on the bedroom floor without a pulse and was not breathing. She immediately began CPR on mom and was able to restore a pulse but they had to assist her in breathing and took her to the emergency room.

I was notified and went to the hospital immediately. The one good important thing I had was that I had Medical Power of Attorney for my mom.

Mom was in a coma. The first 2 days they do not feed the person. They are receiving IV's though.

At the 2 day mark they need to decide if they are going to feed the person in a coma or not.

No one knew or knows how long mom was not breathing. I know brain death can occur in as little as 4 minutes.

Her Doctor was very pessimistic. In his "experience" if she came out of the coma he thought she would be a mental vegetable the rest of her life. He was suggesting we don't feed mom. They had no actual evidence to support this.

It was simple in my book. Start feeding her immediately where they put a tube down the throat.

After 3 days she came out of her coma and needed 3 weeks of rehab before she could go home. Mom was 66 years old at the time.

She lived 18 more years and was mostly independent that whole time. She died when she was 84.

During her rehab, I requested another Doctor be assigned to mom and I had the original one "fired" taken off her case.

Mom was always my best friend and I am so happy that I was able to give her a longer life.

We need to be proactive in taking care of others and ourselves.

Please take the time to learn First Aid even if its just a little each week.

To Our Health & Success!

Mel Waller