JMH First Aid & CPR Services will be celebrating CPR month by offering free first aid and CPR courses for transient residents of Thompson. The courses will be held at the Lakeview Inn and Suites Nov. 28-30, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Participants will receive a certificate confirming their First Aider 1 certification, as well a personal first aid kit. A hot lunch will be provided each day for those who attend.
Jessie and Dustin Horodecki have lived in Northern Manitoba for a number of years, and their experiences have highlighted the need for basic medical education in the transient community, and note that transient citizens of Thompson face a unique set of circumstances; Not only are they more significantly more exposed to the elements than the average resident, unfamiliar observers are more likely to misinterpret the signs of medical distress. Symptoms of stroke and diabetic shock, including slurred speech and a loss of motor co-ordination, are easily confused with intoxication, particularly when there’s no familiarity with the individual.
“I see a lot of people just drive by,” Dustin says. “Justifiably or not. I’m not judging anyone, but they need to be able to take care of each other, because they’re a community in themselves, their own family.”
Jessie recounts another extreme example: “Last year was a perfect example, where a teenage boy came knocking on the door of the YWCA, and they were hesitant to let him in, because he was nude. But it was because he was hypothermic.” Paradoxical undressing is a phenomenon where severely hypothermic, often delerious individuals will feel profoundly hot; without an understanding of the condition, victims often begin to undress, dramatically accelerating the encroaching hypothermia.
Jessie hopes that the courses will not only help the displaced community take care of each other, but also ease interactions between them and emergency healthcare providers: “CPR can be a very frightening thing, not only for the person providing it, but for the people watching. Not everyone understands what it is you’re doing.”
She hopes the courses will provide the skills and confidence for less fortunate residents not only to help each other, but all members of the community: “The transient citizens of Thompson are are the very first people to offer help in an emergency uptown. If they were confident in their knowledge in first aid, they could provide more help than just comfort.”
Dustin hopes that this is only the first of ways which JMH will give back to the community. “A lot of people don’t realize that November is CPR month, and we want to make an annual contribution back to the community every November. It’s just our way of thanking the community for letting us be the business that we are.”
Jessie and Dustin would like to thank Michelle Husarski of the Lakeview Inn and Suites, who has provided instruction space for both the free program, and been of great service throughout the life of their business.
