Hi all! My name is Emma and I am an upcoming senior at Ridgway High School. I am fortune enough to also be going on an internship (which I’m at right now! Stay tuned for my first blog this Sunday). I was able to take the First Responder course, and let me tell you it was an interesting week!
We had some required reading to do during the weekend, in which Nerea, Emmalee, and I all got together and studied. We all commuted up together throughout the week, and Jam soon joined us on our rides in which we listened to the Grease soundtrack at least 20 times.
The in person instruction was (in my opinion) the best part. Jeremy and Bob were with us throughout the week and we learned all about CPR, cuts, lighting strikes, strokes, internal bleeding, how to evacuate someone, slings, dislocations, broken bones, and much more. Although our brains doubled in size due to all the information, we all had a super fun time. We did lots of patient simulations and and scenarios, which were a lot harder than expected! I even got to be a patient with hypothermia, and I got wrapped into a big burrito looking thing! Let me tell you, it was VERY warm, especially in our mountain heat.
At some points we were lifting an unconscious person onto a homemade backboard, other times we were trying to communicate with someone who’s ear drums had been blown, and other times we were preforming CPR on a dummy. Although getting up at 6:30 every morning and getting home at 10 at night due to work was a very tiring week, I’d say it was very worth it.
It did feel a little weird the next week not seeing all of the new friends I had made because we spent a week straight all together, but I’m so grateful for the opportunity to have taken this course! Although I don’t go into the wilderness that often, it’s a nice feeling knowing that I could deal with almost anything that got thrown my way in an emergency medical situation until some form of EMS got their. I highly suggest everyone living in the San Juan Area ( or anywhere, really) invest in taking the course because you will feel so much safer knowing that you could deal with anything that might happen.
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