I am proud to say that I have completed 1% of the requirement for getting my personal training license; I am officially CPR certified and I can put my mouth on yours if I ever find you lying unconsciously. But let’s hope that will never happen.

Several things mentioned by the CPR instructor surprised me today. Before you go on with this entry, think about the goal for performing CPR. Why does the CPR performer compress the victim’s chest? I bet most of you would say the compression is executed to resuscitate the victim’s heart beat like the jumper cables that jump start a car with a dead battery. Wrong! Whenever you or any other individual performs CPR on someone, the CPR performer is to keep the victim dead. You heard me…CPR is performed to keep the unconscious person dead. Here’s the twist, there are two definitions for “death”. The condition that we keep the victim in is called “clinical death”; his or her blood would still be circulating in his or her body with minimal damages to the brain cells while remaining pause-less and/or breathless. Therefore, the victim is not “brain dead”, which on the other hand…is really dead. While keeping the victim only clinically dead, the CPR performer waits for the EMT’s arrival with an automated external defibrillator to excite the heart beat.

We also touched on some first aid topics such as Heimlich maneuver. I was surprised to learn that even if a victim is saved from choking, he would still need to go through the emergency service because his airway could be bruised from Heimlich maneuver; the swelling caused by the bruised airway could obstruct the oxygen flow into the victim’s body and cause death. Therefore, if you ever happen to be at the scene where someone is choked on food, remember to call 911 even after the victim is saved.

I hope that you’d feel safer now to hire me as your personal trainer once I get licensed!