It was Fitting that Bandage International Passed out Lifesavers

Yesterday morning I was having the best dream ever, I was skydiving, and not a tandem jump either it was a solo flight. I was doing a long slow free fall over the country of Belize and could see tons of lush jungle and the odd large house but no real town areas. Although I could not see or feel a parachute but since I was falling so slowly I was not scared, the other odd thing was that there was no jump plane. After a while I was able to see the island and knew I was going to be coming in for a landing soon. For fun I looked up the meaning of a skydiving dream and here is what I found – To dream of skydiving represents feeling good taking a big chance, risk, or being dangerous. Enjoying doing something that everyone else thinks is crazy. High ideals and thinking out of the box – sounds good to me 🙂

It was looking like an  amazing sunrise, I could see from our kitchen window the sky was lighting up all pink and orange. I was so temped to go snap a few pictures but knew I could get not afford to get bedazzled at the beach. I had to pick Anthony up at 6:40am and get to Reef Radio and TV on time for the morning show. Anthony and Darryl gave a great interview with show host Aiden Salazar and talked about the importance of first aid in Belize and the businesses who are who are stepping up to help make Ambergris Caye a safer place.

Class went great, 28 people including myself finished the first half of 2 day training, Darryl and his crew are really good teachers. One of the many things I learned this time around was no more pulse checks in CPR even a 20 second delay for something like that can significantly decrease a patients risk of survival. There is also officially no more breathing, no matter how remote your location, Darryl said more often that not breathing is not done effectively and as a result could cause more harm than good. He taught us a handy rhyme to survey a scene for safety – fire, wire, gas, glass. Darryl also gave us a good reminder when it comes to the scene of an accident if it  is wet and sticky and not yours don’t touch it 🙂 There are so many important things to remember when administering first aid the most important is to keep calm, act quickly, safely and gain as much information about the patient as possible until you transfer them over to a more qualified person. The 28 people getting trained are staff from the following businesses: Victoria House Resort, South Ambergris Caye Neighborhood Watch, Romantic travel Belize, Consolidated Water, Grand Caribe, Spiez Pharmacy, Coastal Xpress and tacogirl.com.

It was very fitting that Annie Mae passed out lifesavers at the end of class as one of the students was a lifesaver. Back in 2011 South Ambergris Caye Neighborhood Watch Patrol Officer Coye was instrumental in the saving  a four year old’s life  who was visiting from Belize City and was discovered unconscious in a  swimming pool. Coye having just taken the course with Bandage 2 days earlier, rendered first aid and revived the boy who was quickly transported to the Dr. Otto Rodriguez Poly Clinic.

This marked Coye’s 3rd time doing the first aid course with Bandage International which goes to show you can never have enough training. After class when we all went out side to meet the boy, now seven whose life he had saved – very proud moment and a humbling experience. Bandage International presented Coye with a logo shirt and made him an honorary BI member and they gave the boy lots of toys from Canada to celebrate. Think about it seriously, if it were not for Coye, the boy would not be playing any longer. The event was filmed for the fundraising documentary being done about Bandage International so that they can come to Belize more often. As it stands they believe in Belize and the cause so strongly that the money to come here is out of their own pocket which is why we currently see them only once a year. San Pedro Belize Red Cross and Bandage international would like to thank the following local businesses for their contributions: Maya Island Air, El Divino Restaurant at Banana Beach Resort, Victoria House Resort, Royal Caribbean, Ultimate Carts and Carts Belize.

Formed  in September 2005 by a group of paramedics and emergency care nurses and doctors Bandage International is a Canadian medical charity from Halifax Nova Scotia. They offer quality First Aid and CPR training in partnership with the Belize Red Cross. Their courses cover  bandaging, splinting, burns, cpr for adult, child, infant, choking. They cover medical emergencies including heart attacks, stroke, asthma, seizures, water emergencies, using AED’s, smoke inhalation and do hands on practical sessions.

Darryl Chickness talking about why first Aid is so important in Countries like Belize where there is limited or no emergency response availability – video by TimbooktwoChannel.

Because I was taking the course I vowed not to carry a good camera so I would not get caught up taking pictures. I did snap a couple off with my camera phone because this is too important an event not to blog – not as good quality pics but they are better than none.

Living in a tourist community with limited medical attention, the Belize Red Cross focuses intensively of training individuals to learn basic first aid in order to be able to help out in times of emergency. Interviews with Darryl Chickness of Bandage International, Winnie Parchu of Belize Red Cross, John Grief of Tropic Air  and Stacey Chesnick the Phoenix Resort – video by Manuel Media.