3 Life-Saving Skills Everyone Should Learn

Like most people, you likely enjoy helping others when you can. However, you may not prepared to help another person when they are experiencing a medical emergency. While you likely know that you should call 911 as soon as you realize another person's life or safety is in danger, you may not realize that with proper training, you can take additional steps to help others while waiting for medical professionals to arrive on the scene. 

Read on to learn about three life-saving skills everyone should learn. 

1. CPR

Learning cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) prepares you to help others who have experienced a heart attack, or cardiac arrest. This technique keeps blood flowing throughout the body, including to the heart and brain, while you wait for medical professionals to arrive to further help the heart attack sufferer. By starting CPR in the two minutes after a person has stopped breathing due to a heart attack, you increase their chance of survival by 200 to 300 percent. 

There are two main types of CPR: adult CPR and pediatric CPR. Since adult CPR can only be performed on adults and children over the age of 8, be sure to choose a class that also covers pediatric CPR techniques if you would like also learn how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on younger children and babies. 

2. AED Usage

Many public places are now equipped with automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) that can be used to help save the lives of people suffering from cardiac arrest. For this reason, everyone should take a class on AED usage. 

While CPR helps keep blood flowing through the body of a person who recently suffered cardiac arrest, an AED helps restore the heart's natural rhythm to increase their chance of survival even further. In fact, when the use of an AED is combined with CPR, the chance of heart attack survival increases by 50 percent. 

3. First Aid

If you would like to learn how to help people experiencing a wide variety of medical emergencies aside from heart attacks alone, then you should take a first aid class. During a first-aid class, you will learn how to stop uncontrolled bleeding that could eventually lead to shock or death if not controlled, how to help a person who is choking, and how to treat a burn victim. In addition, you may receive advanced training on bee sting treatment, how to help a person who you suspect has suffered a spinal injury, and much more. 

After you take a first-aid class, you can feel good that you will be able to help a person in the midst of many types of medical emergencies to help increase their chance of survival and a good final health outcome. 

Everyone should learn these three life-saving skills to help others in need of emergency care. Classes that combine all three types of emergency medical training in one convenient session are available. Contact a company like West Coast CPR to learn more.