Before I ever became a police I was a firefighter. Growing up in Northridge which had four fire houses they kept busy. Interstate 75 went through Northridge North and Northridge South’s jurisdiction. North Main Street (State Route 48) went through Shiloh and Salem Avenue (State Route 49) went through Ft. McKinley. We also had Needmore Rd., North Dixie Dr. and Shiloh Springs Rd. The Harrison Township Fire Department has a lot of area to cover.

I joined the Fire Department in 1975 and worked out of the Shiloh Station on North Main at Markey. The largest fire I ever worked was the Shiloh Congregational at the corner of N. Main and Philadelphia. But what kept me busy at Harrison was the squad runs. With such a large territory to cover and most volunteer firefighter’s having day jobs, I ran a lot of the daytime calls for an ambulance. Having a job where I worked as a dispatcher from midnight to eight then staying up all day running squad, there was not much time for sleep or the new bride.

The Shiloh Station was lucky to have a large number of its members being Paramedics. It was the Paramedics job, and still is, to set up the heart monitor, push the drugs and make all the calls. As the Emergency Medical Technician, it was my job to give CPR, mouth to mouth and does all the grunt work. I quit counting after a dozen the number of times I had to give CPR, mouth to mouth breathing or both.

Eventually I became a police officer but was still usually the first on the scene of a call for an ambulance and would start the initial CPR attempts. To this end, the City of Tipp City elected to require all their police officers to become Ohio Certified First Responders. Even after I became a sergeant, I responded to all squad runs as I know the importance of early CPR when a loved one has stopped breathing and their heart stops.

The technology has improved tremendously over the years but the basics are still the same. When a person’s heart is no longer beating, chest compressions are the only way for blood to continue being pumped to the brain and other vital organs in the body while the drugs and AED’s (defribulators) are able to be administered. We are talking around five minutes for CPR to begin before the brain is damaged severely and no heroic efforts will work. The best Paramedic in the world can do nothing if there isn’t an early start of CPR.

So if it is one of your loved ones, a neighbor, friend or coworker who suffers the heart attack and cessation of breathing, are you going to be the one standing there feeling horrible and helpless or are you going to be one to get down on your hands and knees and do all you can to help that person hang on until the Paramedics arrive? It doesn’t require years of training. You don’t need any special equipment other than your hands and mouth. A class on CPR is all you need.

Where I work now must have CPR/AED/First Aid training yearly for the workers. Our trainer recently took a job outside the agency and we were left without a trainer. When the email was sent asking who wanted to take over the training duties, I was selected.

Even with all the experience, I still had to be trained to train. To that end I am taking CPR/AED/First Aid Trainer classes through the Dayton Red Cross. This is what this whole article is about. We could go into the history of the Red Cross, but this is not a historical column.

The Red Cross is a Not For Profit organization. They help the victims when a house burns down. They help the victims of floods, tornados and hurricanes. The Red Cross makes no bones about how much Hurricane Katrina devastated the organization monetarily. But their number one goal of helping those in need is still ongoing. Please go to their website at Redcross.org or call them at 937-222-6711.

Read their impressive history. Maybe donate some money (tax deductible) or time. No special training is needed to volunteer. They need people to mow the lawn, clean the offices and give out cookies at blood drives. If you have the time, take a class or two. Hopefully you would never have to use it, but a CPR class could save someone’s life. Take a class on your own, with a friend, with your family or get your place of work to sponsor a class for employees. They have the trainers.

First Group 2x2
First Group 2x2
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