There is another hero named among us. Charles Schulze–not the famous cartoonist, but a previously unknown citizen from Florida–saved not one, but two, children on Saturday, in exchange for his own life.

Two boys, aged 12 and 9, were caught in a riptide at an unsupervised portion of Pompano Beach, Florida. Riptides are dangerous ocean currents that pull people quickly away from shore. Generally, to escape them you must swim to the side and not towards shore. But Schulze, aged 70, swam out to them and pulled both boys toward the beach, until he could go no further. At that point, concerned spectators on the beach dragged the young swimmers the rest of the way to safety.

But after making sure the boys were alright, the beach goers looked to the water to discover Schulze face-down in the surf. He was pulled to the sand where another man tried to give him CPR until lifeguards from a different portion of the beach arrived. He was then taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. He had drowned. The man who tried to rescue Schulze also swallowed or inhaled some sea water and was being treated for difficulty breathing. According to the Pompano Beach Fire Rescue spokeswoman Sandra King, it was unclear whether Schulze experienced an unrelated medical issue, or if he became overwhelmed by the tide himself.

Among the people watching from shore was Schulze’s girlfriend. I agree with her assessment of the situation. “He’s a hero…He saved the lives of these two boys.” Although it is sad to learn that this brave man died, I am so happy to see news of a person who did a good thing, who risked himself for people he didn’t even know. I wonder how many selfless things that Mr. Schulze did that never got published? And even though Mr. Schulze died–kudos to the other people on the beach who knew CPR and were willing to help.

This reminds me of a few important safety questions for parents:

• If you live near a body of water, do your children know how to swim?

• If you live near the ocean, do they know how to escape a riptide?

• When you go swimming, do you always swim at a supervised beach or pool?

• Are you certified in CPR?

I have been meaning to enroll my 12 year old son in the Red Cross babysitting course that would have him certified in infant CPR–a safety precaution that all of us moms and dads could benefit from.

On a positive note, in honor of Mr. Schulze, do you have a story to tell of an unnamed hero in our midst? Leave a comment that puts a positive spotlight on a good samaritan in your community.

In November last year, Megan Howard was babysitting a toddler. She gave the little girl her breakfast, then left the room to use the bathroom leaving the little girl eating a pop tart.

While she was gone, the toddler started choking. But Megan’s Quaker parrot, Willie, raised the alarm by flapping his wings and squawking “Mama! Baby!” over and over until Megan ran back in. She did the Heimlich maneuver and stopped the toddler choking.

Willie recived the Animal Lifesaver Award award from the Denver Red Cross today for saving the little girl.

Well done Willie and Megan for saving the little girl. Although how the parrot knew the little girl was in trouble is beyond me. And because Megan knew about the Heimlich maneuver, she got the food out of the toddler’s throat and saved her from choking.

Perhaps I need a parrot? Well, probably not, and learning how to do the Heimlich maneuver would be much much more useful in an emergency.  Where can you learn how to help a choking baby?

Even if you have taken an adult CPR class, the procedure for helping a choking baby or small child is different for what you would do for an adult, so the best place is at an Infant and Child CPR class approved by either the Red Cross, the American Heart Association, or a hospital.

The American Red Cross offers baby and child CPR courses, you can find you local Red Cross chapter at RedCross.org

The American Heart Association has a directory of other health care and community organizations that offer CPR classes, searchable by your zip code.

The maternity and baby ward of your hospital might also offer infant CPR classes, or have referrals to organizations who offer them.

Here’s a couple of videos to give an idea of what’s involved in first aid for a choking baby, and a choking toddler or small child. Don’t depend on the videos though – the best way to learn is at a CPR class from a trained instructor.

This story is about a 10-month old baby who almost drowned and died. It all started with the usual daily routine of bathing baby while he is having fun in his safety bath seat. But oops, Mommy forgot the towel. So she stepped out quickly to grab a towel from the other room. Daddy came into the bathroom to find the little baby underwater. He wasn’t breathing. Mommy came running and started CPR, putting to use a course she did years back. The baby was successfully resuscitated by the time emergency help arrived. He was taken to the hospital but was released a few hours later.

From this story featured in the American Heart Association site, a couple of very important lessons can be learned, namely:

• Safety bath seats are not completely safe. There are many “safety gadgets” out there for children meant to make parents’ lives easier.
• Never leave your baby alone in a bathtub, a pool, or anywhere where there is water, even for just a few seconds. Sometimes a split second makes the difference between life and death.
• CPR can save lives. As I wrote in a previous post, you’ll never know whose life you’ll be saving with CPR. It may be that of a total stranger, it may be a loved one’s.

A happy ending to a story that could easily have ended tragically.

In case of an emergency, would you know how perform a CPR? Or use an AED?

CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. AED is the abbreviation for automated external defibrillator. And this week is National CPR/AED Awareness Week.

But why are CPR and AED important?

A CDC report estimates that 47% of cardiac deaths happen before the arrival of emergency services or arrival at the hospital. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), cardiac events can be fatal if CPR or AED is not applied with minutes of collapse. CPR alone can double or even triple a person’s survival chances in such situations. However, less than one-third of the victims receive CPR from bystander.

As part of this week’s CPR/AED Awareness program, AHA conducted an online survey of life-saving skills of the general public and the results are sobering.

Of 1,132 people who participated in the survey, 89% were willing to help in an emergency situation. However, only 21% of those asked felt confident enough to be able to perform a CPR and only 15%felt they could use an AED.

AHA is now stepping up on its campaign to convince people that CPR and AED can basically be done by anybody – not only those who have had medical training.

Most of us are familiar with CPR as we’ve seen in films and movies. We know that ordinary people like you and me, with practice, can do it. To make CPR even easier, AHA gives this tip: “The most effective rate for chest compressions is 100 compressions per minute – the same rhythm as the beat of the BeeGee’s song, “Stayin’ Alive.” Other tips can be found in this site.

But using an AED is another thing. Giving electric shock with a defibrillator is a pretty daunting task. Actually, AEDs are portable easy-to-use defibrillators which can be found in places where they might be needed in an emergency – schools, churches, and sports competitions. In the city of Zurich where we are now residing, they started a pilot project of placing AEDs in several public phone booths all over the city.

AEDs have been designed so they can be used by almost anybody even without previous medical training. According to AHA, AEDs are equipped with clear audio and visual instructions telling users how to use them. They are fairly simple and user-friendly. And a shock is delivered only when absolutely needed.

11% of the respondents to the AHA survey were not willing or were hesitant to help in an emergency situation due to several reasons – among them lack of confidence in their life-saving skills, fear of harming the victim, and – take note – fear of possible legal consequences. From my point of view, the latter is an excuse of utmost selfishness.

Performing CPR and using an AED in emergency situation are life-saving actions. We never know when we will be needed to act and whose life we will be saving. It could be the stranger on the street but it could also be our children, our partners, our friends. That is why we should always be prepared.

Good news for the squeamish: The American Heart Association said Monday that hands-only CPR ? a series of deep presses on the victim’s chest until paramedics arrive ? works just as well as standard CPR for sudden cardiac arrest in adults.

Experts hope that this new standard will increase the likelihood of a bystander to jump in and help if they witness someone suddenly collapsing. Hands-only CPR is much simpler and easier to remember, and is more comfortable for anyone who may be skittish about the mouth-to-mouth breathing.

“You only have to do two things. Call 911 and push hard and fast on the middle of the person’s chest,” said Dr. Michael Sayre, an emergency medicine professor at Ohio State University who headed the committee that made the recommendation.

The hands-only CPR requires the administrator to do uninterrupted chest presses on the victim ? 100 per minute ? until help arrives or an automated external defibrillator is available to restore a normal heart rhythm.

CPR should only be administered on adults who unexpectedly collapse, stop breathing and are unresponsive. The chances are great that the person is having cardiac arrest (when the heart suddenly stops), which can occur after experiencing a heart attack or can be caused by other heart related problems. In such cases, the victim still has sufficient air in their lungs and blood, and the series of compressions will keep blood flowing to the brain, heart, and other essential organs.

In contrast, a child who collapses suddenly is more likely to have breathing problems primarily. In such instances, mouth-to-mouth breathing should be administered. This also applies to adults who suffer lack of oxygen due to a near-drowning, drug overdose or carbon monoxide poisoning. Under these circumstances, people need mouth-to-mouth to get air into their lungs and bloodstream.

In either case, “Something is better than nothing,” Sayre said.

For more information, visit the American Heart Association Web site.

On Friday, our son started choking and had trouble breathing. When my husband and I couldn’t help him(using our basic layman first aid skills), I called 911 for help.

Incredibly, instead of an operator, I got a recorded message which stated that all lines were busy and that I should hold on the line until an operator was available to help me.

I have no clue how long I was actually on hold, but it seemed like an eternity until I got through to an operator and the ambulance was dispatched to our house. My son was able to recover at home, but they did take him to the hospital in the ambulance to get him checked out.

After the drama died down, I found out that a city worker had accidentally cut the 911 lines, and they were re-routing calls. Also, due to bad weather and numerous traffic accidents, the system was overwhelmed with a high call volume.

What are the chances of something like this happening? I assume that they are very, very rare, but it does happen. I am relaying my experience here not to frighten anyone, but just to make you think.

Do you have an “emergency game plan”? Do you know how to get to the hospitals in your area and their specialties? Do you have a list of people you can call on if you would need help in an emergency–for example, a neighbor to watch your older children while you tend to the baby? Do you know basic first aid? Have you taken a course in CPR?

Of course, we all hope and pray that the day will never come when we actually need to put “the plan” into motion, but just in case, isn’t it a good thing to be prepared?