Well wishes to the poor lady with the broken leg, they take a lot of time to heal.
my story of why you should be prepared;
4 years ago I encountered a similar situation. I was enjoying a spring whitewater rafting trip on the Lehigh River. At lunch as my wife and I were taking in the tranquility of the lunch break along the stoney banks of the river, a frantic scream and cry for "does anyone know CPR came the from group of 40 plus people who were all eating lunch at this point in the river. Professional guides, Kyackers from other groups and so on.
My wife looked at me as I tried to finish my sandwich. I pretend I didn't hear the call for help but It was hard to ignore the screams; my learned instincts kicked in naturally, as I am an active volunteer firefighter for 25 years got the better half of me.
So I wandered over to where the chaos was, my wife knew this was going to change the trips relaxing tone, and it did.
I saw this guy partially in the river unresponsive. I sized up the situation and asked the guide, who was standing there in shock of it all if he had a satellite phone to call for help. He looked at me with the expression like "why would I need one of those, I only carry ice packs and band aids" he told me. I sternly told the group of guides that they needed to get help now, what ever way they could.
I recall saying a few choice words to myself at that point as I pulled this wet, unresponsive man to a safer area to render aid when a petite woman announced to me that she too knew CPR, she brought a rescue mask in her travel bag so we went to work.
I did compressions for 1 hour and 18 minutes and the retired nurse who happened to be with the next group of rafters did rescue breathing until a park ranger arrived. He carried the AED and had radio contact with the medics who were making their way to where they thought we were.
What amazes me after the fact, is that out of the group of 40 rafters and 4 guides- nobody including the mans wife who just sat there next to us sobbing as he died, knew how to do CPR!
So the man died right there on the banks of the Lehigh river.
Some may wonder why we stayed with the compressions and breathing for so long? The lady and I knew he had expired. We continued because neither one of us were qualified nor did we want to pronounce him; nor were we exhausted enough to stop. Ok-skip past the drama of my experience; the guides who were supposed to be professionals never assisted us. They did not know what to do. So they watched. I expected more of the "professional" guides but they came up short. My point to you all is to take the course in CPR it is good to know. Someday you may be posting a message about saving someone on the island because you were prepared.
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