Red Cross basics save lives

By JILL TREADWAY
jtreadway@tribtown.com

Learning how to save a life can never start too early, "because even students at this age (fourth-graders) can help somebody," said Carol McBee.

McBee is a volunteer first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation instructor with the American Red Cross.

"At Ryan's somebody was choking and one of the girls who had the class knew what to do," McBee said of the Basic Aid Training course taught by the American Red Cross. "Maybe she wouldn't have known what to do without the class."

McBee, along with Arann Banks, health and safety director of the Jackson County Chapter of the American Red Cross, are teaching fourth-graders how to save lives as well as prevention skills to stay safe.

Through BAT, students learn skills such as what to do in an emergency, how to treat wounds, how to help a conscious choking victim and even rescue breathing. Safety is also taught concerning fire, the water and riding a bike.

Jason O'Neal teaches the fire unit of the program.

"It is difficult to do the program without him," Banks said. "He is phenomenal."

She said that O'Neal brings in his fire suit and mask and picks one of the kids to put on the equipment.

BAT is made up of six 45-minute lessons that are presented to 12 elementary schools in Jackson County. McBee said she teaches students the Emergency Action Plan, Check, Call, Care. It teaches students to check the scene to make sure it's safe before checking the person, as well as calling 911 and caring for the victim.

"What are you supposed to do when you call 911?" McBee asked students during a recent lesson. Students replied with what they had already learned, "Tell them where you are, what the injuries are and don't hang up."

McBee recently taught the class at Seymour-Redding Elementary School about how to prevent and treat wounds.

"Don't run with knives and scissors, keep them put up," she told the students. She also encouraged the students to avoid going barefoot where there may be broken glass, to never play with a gun and to never use power tools and lawn mowers without adult supervision.

"When I was a nurse, a young girl had been riding on a lawn mower, fallen off and cut her leg up," McBee told students in explaining what could happen if people are not careful.

Using an apple to demonstrate, she explained the different kinds of wounds, including cuts, bruises, stab wounds and fractures.

"If someone gets something stuck in their eye, do not take it out, you may cause more damage," she told students when explaining the stab wound. "If you get a paper cut, go wash it out and put antibiotic ointment on it."

McBee said no matter what kind of cut it is, even if it is a paper cut, to wash it out because you never know what kind of bacteria you will pick up in an open wound. She told the students about a woman she knew who got a paper cut and didn't treat it. The next morning she woke up with red streaks on her, and the cut was infected.

If you get a nosebleed, "do you lean your head back?" McBee asked the students, who replied with ‘no'.

"Why not?"

"Because it will go down your throat to your stomach and make you sick," one student replied.

She told students to sit up and lean over and pinch their nose for 10 minutes if they get a nosebleed.

Animal bites and electric shock were two other topics McBee covered.

"Why is it important not to play with wires or plug-ins?" she asked.

"If someone touches a wire or plug-in and they get shocked, then they could get killed," Lutisha Gregory answered.

Before the lessons are over, the students will learn how to do rescue breathing on a child and an infant.

"BAT does teach rescue breathing, which crosses the comfort zone for some," Banks said. She doesn't make someone do it if they don't want to, but she's never had an issue with teaching it to fourth-graders.
"At their age we don't teach CPR because of their muscle development," she said. Many of them don't have the muscles they need to compress the chest.

Banks said BAT is one of the oldest programs that the Red Cross has to offer.

"I remember when I took it and I've used it," she said of parents and students who have taken the class. "It's always interesting to hear their stories."

Banks recalled a story about a girl from Brownstown who was out walking with her friends and fell on a piece of rebar. She said to stay calm and get help.

"We really have to stay calm," the girl told her friend. Banks said the girl was reciting the steps of the Emergency Action Plan in her head.

She had one of her friends run back and get help from her mom. The mother was overwhelmed that her daughter was hurt. The little girl told her mother, "Don't pull it out," and told her to call 911.

The girl did just as she was taught in BAT, to stay calm and seek help. Once help arrived, Banks said they had to cut the rebar off on each side of the leg to get her to the hospital.

"She kept saying, ‘In BAT, this is what they told us to do," Banks said of the little girl while she was being helped by medical personnel.

Each school's parent-teacher organization sponsors the program through the purchase of workbooks for the students. The students also get a certificate for taking part in BAT.

Banks tells the students after the lessons, "You can do anything in the world and now you can save a life."

How to help

-- Anyone interested in volunteering to be a BAT instructor may call the Jackson County Chapter of the American Red Cross at 522-3888.