I gently touched her neck. My other hand brushed the back of her hair and cradled her head. As I placed my lips over hers, I delicately tilted her head upwards.
I blew into her mouth. Twice. My eyes concentrated on her chest. I watched carefully as her chest rose.
Then I drew back and looked up.
“Good work, Michael.”
I stood up and returned to my seat.
“Only next time, remember to hold her nose when you blow into her mouth.”
“Oh yea, I forgot about that. Okay.”
The instructor nodded and motioned to the guy sitting to my right.
“Okay, Jeff, your turn,” he said as he wiped the dummy’s mouth with an alcohol cleansing pad.
I took a CPR certification class during my junior year of college. They gave me a card to carry around when I finished the class. I was so proud. I walked around for weeks, hoping morbidly that someone would start choking in front of me.
My certification has long since expired—it goes out in one year. And with good reason. I’ve forgotten the proper steps to take during CPR.
I remember a few key points though. I remember that before commencing CPR, first try to assess their condition. Then point to a specific person in the crowd (assuming there’s a crowd around you) and tell him/her to call 911.
For more serious injuries, point to another person and tell him/her to call the fire department. The more different medical services you can contact, the higher the chance that someone will arrive in time.
Pointing to a specific person also ensures that action will be done. If you just yell “Somebody call 911!” there’s a strong possibility that everyone will just stand there, waiting for someone else to do the job.
So I’m sitting here now, going through my old American Red Cross Community First Aid & Safety manual. I’m giving myself a quick refresher course.
After making sure that someone is calling for help, check if the person is conscious or not. If not, check to see if he/she has a pulse. Then check for breathing.
If the person is not breathing nor has a pulse, that’s when you give CPR. If the person does have a pulse, you do a whole other set of procedures.
CPR basically means getting the heart going again.
Here’s a quick crash course in CPR. Please note that I am no longer certified (maybe certifiable, but not certified). This info is strictly for a basic understanding of CPR—if you’d like to know more about this, please check out the links below.
- Find the person’s breastbone. Feel for the notch where the lower ribs meet the breastbone.
- Place two fingers on the edge of the breastbone.
- Place the heel of your palm above these two fingers. This should be within the breastbone area.
- Place both of your hands on this area. Position your shoulders over your hands and kneel next to the person. This position allows you to make the most effective thrusts with your body weight to your advantage.
- Press down and compress the chest about 15 times, one right after another.
- Tilt the head back so the mouth opens up. Make sure the tongue falls to the bottom of the throat.
- Don’t worry, nobody can swallow their own tongue; that’s just a fairy tale invented by horror stories. The tongue has to fall to the bottom of the throat so it covers the entrance to the stomach and allows air into the lungs. If air goes into the stomach, you can induce vomit.
- Pinch the nose shut. Place your mouth over the person’s mouth and blow gently. Make 2 slow breaths.
- Watch the chest to make sure it rises as it accepts your breaths.
- Do this process 4 times. Then recheck the pulse. If there is none, repeat the process 4 more times before rechecking for a pulse.
- Continue doing this until another trained person can take over, the EMS personnel arrive to care for the person, you are too exhausted to continue, or the scene becomes unsafe.
. . .
Do you know CPR?
With true friends, there are no “Goodbyes,” only “See you laters.”
Standing in a tight stairway at a friend’s house during our farewell party, I said those lines as tears brimmed and sobs choked the air.
It was the end of our senior college year. One buddy was returning to Hong Kong. Three were off to Medical school. One to Law school. Another to the business world. And I was jumping into the web design field.
Some let go their damns of grief. It was a passionate and fervent moment. They cried in each other’s arms. In warm embrace, we all wept and lamented the closing of a chapter of our lives.
I didn’t cry though. Though I knew this was a farewell party, I knew it wasn’t a true farewell. Deep in my heart, I knew I would see them again. For better or for worse. We would all meet up again someday.
Because with true friends, there are no “Goodbyes,” only “See you laters.”
. . .
Ever have to say goodbye to good friends?
Dim the lights, set out the candles, and get ready for a REAL ghost story.
During my freshman year at New York University I lived in a five-person suite. The suite was separated into a two-person and a three-person bedroom. I lived in the three-person bedroom.
On and off I had noticed eerie shadows and sounds from the room. I attributed them to poor lighting and the thin walls. One of our closets reeked of stale vomit and rotten fruit; it was the closet towards the front door. And though it was the biggest closet there, the last guy to move in ended up getting it because the rest of us couldn’t stand that awful stench.
Unbeknownst to me, my suitemates had also been noticing eerie shadows and sounds. None of us said anything until the end of the first semester.
One night, near the advent of Winter Break, James, one of my suitemates, brought up the topic.
“Hey guys, any of you ever notice anything weird going on in this room?”
The damn of silence was finally broken. We all suddenly poured out similar experiences. Most of the stories where the usual, “I thought I saw someone out the corner of my eye” variety. But four main stories have stood out in my mind.
One
The first story happened to my suitemate Mike.
Returning from a full day of classes, he entered the suite and found it empty; the rest of us were either still in classes or at a dining hall. He walked into the three-person bedroom to watch some TV. In his peripheral vision he thought he saw someone walk into the two-person bedroom. Then he heard the door slam.
Believing that his roommate had returned, he walked over there to greet him. He opened the door and the room was dark. A gust of cold wind blew into his face.
Maybe the window is open, he thought. He checked the window and found it closed and locked.
Two
The second story happened to Rafael, a fraternity brother of Mike’s and James’.
During Winter Break, Rafael stayed in our suite because he had no where else to go. The entire dorm had only a skeleton crew of administrators and students. Most of the other students, including me, went home for the break.
While he slept, he often heard laughter from the two-person bedroom, a female’s voice. Beyond the walls creaking, he also heard footsteps as if there were right next to him. And it was constantly cold in the room, though the windows were all shut and locked.
He never actually saw anything. But when he inquired about the laughter, it was found that no one else was in any of the adjacent rooms, above or below.
Three
The third story happened to me, indirectly.
I was studying for my Spanish class on my bed one night. I remember doing some of the exercises before drifting off to sleep. The only other person in the suite was Mike. He was on my computer doing his Computer Science homework.
He walked out of the room for a minute to grab a soda from the vending machines downstairs. When he left the room, he kept the bolt open so the door could not shut all the way. The door automatically locks itself if shut. We would keep the bolt open so we could leave the room without our keys.
The next thing I remember is my Mike pounding furiously on the door. He shouted that I locked him out. I was sleeping the whole time though. To this day, he still blames me for locking him out and trying to scare him.
Four
The fourth story also happened to me.
I was alone in the room. I was at my desk, doing some homework. After a few hours, I got bored and called up my brother. While talking to him, I swiveled around to face the wall behind me.
I heard some papers rattle. I turned around and noticed all of my homework on the floor. After I picked up the papers, I checked the windows; they were closed and locked. I passed it off as nothing and faced the opposite wall again.
My desk lamp was casting my shadow along the wall. As I talked, I suddenly saw my shadow move across the wall.
I turned around and was faced with an eyeful of bright light; my desk lamp had been twisted upwards with the light bulb now facing me.
A surge of chills froze me there for a moment. Even as I write this, I’m feeling those chills again. I hung up the phone and ran down to the common room. I didn’t return to the room until my suitemates came home.
. . .
I ran into a guy who was living in that same room two years later. For kicks, I asked them about any eerie shadows or noises.
“Oh, yea, the ghost,” he said ever so casually. He didn’t have any significant experiences beyond moving shadows and slamming doors. But he confirmed that another generation of suitemates were all going through the same frightening experiences we did.
. . .
Do you have any real ghost stories?
