Douglas Fire Department offers CPR/First Aid Class

The Douglas Fire Department in their constant effort to serve the community in different ways offered a special CPR/First Aid Training Class on Saturday, February 4 to community members interested in learning these practices that could help them save a life someday.

DFD Firefighter/Paramedic Francisco Honne was in charge of the class.

Honne told his students the most important thing a person can do in case of an emergency situation is always call 911 and ask for help before attempting any CPR or First Aid treatment to whom may be hurt or injured at the moment.

“By cutting the time to respond to an emergency could be the difference to save a patient’s life,” he said.

Honne explained the different scenarios that are considered as an emergency and what to do in case of each one of them. Among different scenarios there are allergic reactions, such as an anaphylactic shock, which symptoms include dizziness, loss of consciousness, labored breathing, swelling of the tongue and breathing tubes, blueness of the skin, low blood pressure, heart failure and possibly death. Asthma attacks, which are a disorder that cause the airways of the lungs to swell and narrow, leading to wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and coughing and many others like diabetes, low/high blood pressure, car accidents, chest pains, seizures and more.

Probably one of the best advices Horne gave to students is to “always protect yourself”.

“Nowadays we live in a society where we have an ambulance less than half-an hour away,” Honne said. “It is better to call 911 for anything you do not feel comfortable taking care of; you will get help eventually.”