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Setting a World Record for CPR Training

Wed, 22 May 2013 20:00:10 +0000

All day today I've been participating in an event called the AMR World CPR Challenge. The idea was to train more people in compression only CPR in one day than anyone else has ever done.

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Oh Disney, You can Do Better

Tue, 14 May 2013 15:21:50 +0000

My daughter's school band performed at Disney's California Adventure Park yesterday. It was a great performance and a pretty incredible experience for the kids. They got to hang out at Disneyland all day and work with Disney Performing Arts behind the scenes.

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Will the Cost of Care Matter?

Wed, 08 May 2013 20:24:15 +0000

There are two schools of thought on healthcare and money:

It doesn't matter what it costs when we need to get help.
I don't want to go bankrupt simply because I got sick.

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May Your Soul Live Long and Prosper, My Friend

Sun, 05 May 2013 02:48:32 +0000

In your life, you can probably count on one hand the number of pivotal mentors that have guided your journey through life. Somewhere at the very top of that list for me, near my parents, is a man named Mark Lockwood. Almost 18 years ago, Mark invited me to lunch after meeting me only a few times. He had a proposition for me: how would I like to take over the EMS program at the local junior college?

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Zombie Wasps Beware!

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 05:54:07 +0000

We have wasps.

These are miserable, evil little critters. They usually leave us alone, but they just look evil. They have that sleek, mean look of an efficient assassin.

They're also hard to kill.

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Bee Stinger Removal, the Biggest First Aid Myth

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 13:44:26 +0000

Removing bee stingers is about speed not technique

One of the most common first aid myths is how to remove a bee stinger. For decades, we've been taught that bee stingers must be scraped off rather than pulled out. Actually, it doesn't matter -- they just have to be removed quickly to cut down on any reaction.

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Shingles: Chickenpox Redux

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:01:37 +0000

As a kid, I was told that once you had chickenpox you were golden. It's over. You had completed your rite of passage through elementary school.

Shingles follows a nerve on one side of the body

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Does the Recovery Position Work?

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:44:49 +0000

I was working on an article and got to thinking about how often I, and other first aid instructors, suggest putting patients in the recovery position. The idea is simple: put them on their sides to let puke drain out.

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Daydreaming vs Texting, Which is Worse?

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:52:13 +0000

Earlier this month there was a study published about distracted driving. The author, an insurance group, says that of approximately 6,500 traffic fatalities identified as being the result of "distracted driving," 62% were from drivers claiming they were "lost in thought." The insurance group extrapolated from that figure that daydreaming on the road is dangerous.

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Boston Responded Very Well

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:15:54 +0000

As I sit here watching the footage from the explosions at the Boston Marathon, it makes me wonder how well emergency services around the world would respond to such a tragedy. This is what we train for and from what I can see of Boston's emergency services, they did a great job.

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