As soon as the holidays are over, I am finding, signing up for and taking a class in CPR and possibly other first aid.
Today, I was at our local Home Depot and one of the cashiers collapsed.
I don’t know what happened to her – she was behind me when it happened. I turned and, she was on the floor and another cashier was trying to waken her. The cashier helping said the young lady was subject to panic attacks. She was clearly breathing, and for a bit she became responsive, saying that she couldn’t breathe. Then she became unresponsive. Another employee was helping too – and he said she had a pulse, but to me she no longer seemed to be breathing.
I kept asking if anyone knew CPR, but nobody responded. I do not know CPR. By then, 911 had been called and help was supposed to be on the way. I didn’t have a clue what to do that would be helpful, so I left. I didn’t want to be in the way. As I went to my car, there was still no sound of sirens coming to the rescue. I have a really bad feeling about what happened.
I’ve never wanted to take CPR because I felt I didn’t want that responsibility – of being the one person who might be able to help. I didn’t think I could deal with that kind of responsibility. Now I know not being able to help is even worse.
I don’t ever want to be in the position where I might have helped if I had only had some training.
I hope I am never in the position again where something like this happens, but if I am, I hope to have some knowledge and skills so I can do something.
I can only hope that the young woman survived; and I wish I could have helped.
Thoughts from a Fat Old Lady 
Good for you! First Aid and CPR training is good stuff. Well worth doing. The trick is to take it every year or two so that you stay in practice. That does a lot for your confidence in being able to use it if needed.
If you have trouble getting up and down or bad knees, you can ask them to put the CPR dummy on a slightly higher surface so you can do it standing. That’s what they did for me after my car accident. Made a world of difference.
In an emergency, if it means someone’s life, of COURSE I will get down on my knees and administer CPR and the knees be damned. But I’m not going to make my knees worse to simply practice CPR. And they understand and accommodate that. It was hard for me to ask for that at first, and it still is. But it’s been a worthwhile thing to do.