T
oday we started our trauma week. This year we are learning how to care for a drowning victim who was at the bottom of the pool for a few minutes. We went to the University of South Alabama where this scenario was set up. When we got there, we noticed the "drowning victim" laying at the bottom of the pool. The lifeguard blew her whistle and dove into the pool to bring the victim to the surface. The other lifeguard on duty rushed over with a board and the victim was moved onto the board and taken out of the water. Once on land, both lifeguards began CPR. One performed compressions while the other ran to call for help and get the AED.
After the lifeguards did four rounds of compressions, the firemen and EMT showed up to take over. They brought a manual compression machine as well as medications and a stretcher. Although the manual compression machine did not work on the mannequin, it is still a very beneficial tool in real scenarios since it frees up one person. After the mannequin had rounds of CPR performed, he was put onto the stretcher and taken to the ambulance. After watching all of this be performed, we were able to ask the firemen questions and got to learn about how they deal with harsh scenarios as well as what their job is truly like.
Trauma Week Day 1
