It is a public health issue: learning first aid gestures. Only two out of ten French people know them. And even those who have been made aware of them one day can forget them. This is the reason why the town hall of Anglet and the hospital center of the Basque coast jointly organized an initiation workshop. It happened at the Quintaou theaterthis Thursday, in the presence of a doctor and two nurses from SAMU 64A.
In the hall of the theater, therefore, three mannequins are arranged on the ground. Around them, small groups of volunteers headed by a caregiver, responsible for initiating them. “Please note, this is an initiation and not a training”, says Lucas Iglesias, nurse. Before practicing cardiac massage, the latter recalls the very first reflexes to have: “You have to take the pulse of the victim and check that he is breathing”. To do this, it is no longer recommended to bring your ear closer to the victim’s mouth, but your hand. “This is an aspect that we already taught in the past, before the Covid, but that we recall with, perhaps, more insistence since the beginning of this pandemic”notes the caregiver.
Adjustments in practice, linked to the Covid
Another change which, this time, is the direct consequence of the coronavirus : the fact, during cardiac massage, of leaving the victim his mask, in the event that he had it at the time of his illness. “It doesn’t prevent him from breathing, and it allows you to be protected during the massage, which we now call chest compression”emphasizes Lucas Iglesias.
