CPR Certified - March 31, 2013

On March 31st, Easter Sunday, had an entire day of celebrations planned. About a dozen friends met me at the LLU Life Support Education Department at 9:00 am. Ashish (who had performed CPR on me)  agreed to instruct a CPR certification course. The course got underway and we were in for a great morning. I never had taken a CPR course and I must say I enjoyed  it quite a bit. I thought Ashish and the others did a great job and the instructional videos were so simple and easy to understand.  It was a bit odd to be sitting, listening to the instruction, and practicing on the dummies all the while thinking about those moments in time 6 months earlier.  How odd it was to think about Ashish and Dr. Shankel kneeling next to me and over me administering CPR. How odd it was to think that without their help, I likely wouldn't be here today. It was a bit overwhelming at one point so I had to distract my thoughts otherwise I knew I was going to be overcome with emotion. I hope I never have to administer CPR on a real person because I can't imagine pushing down on a person's chest so deeply. I can't imagine the thoughts that would likely be going through me and the adrenaline. Ashish has told me that once they decided to start CPR he basically went into a zone and everyone around kind of faded into a blur. All he could see or focus on was me and the process.

Ngara was my CPR buddy. We totally rocked it and I saved that big dummy's life! More than once...

Me and Ngara (Richard's niece)

Ashish letting off a little steam during the course because we were such difficult pupils :-)

Patty and Kaleo showing how it's done

Me and Heather (who is showing proper form when using the mask)

During a break, they brought out a cake & balloons and flowers for me. It was so thoughtful of Dr. Evelyn Massey to do something so special.

After nearly 3 hours it was time to take the certification test. It's been a lot of years since I've had to take a test and I must admit I was nervous. What would I do if I missed a bunch of questions? I got lucky and only missed ONE so after it was all said and done I was officially CPR certified!!

I'm CERTIFIED. WooHoo