Prague celebrates first-ever World First Aid Day
On Saturday, September 13th, some one hundred Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies across the five continents celebrated the first-ever "World First Aid Day" under the theme "First Aid - a gesture of humanity which makes the difference". First Aid is a set of practices offering protective and life-saving measures to prevent, be prepared for and provide an initial response to health emergencies, be it disease, epidemics, heart attacks, road traffic crashes or accidents in the home.
On that rainy Saturday, the historic Old Town Square in Prague was abuzz with activity. In the middle - a scene of a traffic accident. A four wheel vehicle has hit a pedestrian, and at the same time a toddler - who had been sitting in the passenger seat instead of being properly strapped in a baby car seat - has sustained a head injury on impact. The driver - the mother of the toddler - is in a state of shock and is crying and screaming. Fortunately, it is not a real accident but an imitation of an - all too common situation on Czech roads.
An emergency unit team is taking care of the injured and the driver, they are taking out a stretcher from the ambulance while the whole situation is being explained step by step for the onlookers by a Red Cross volunteer who is talking through a loudspeaker.
Pavel Stajer, a senior Red Cross instructor, is explaining what is happening to startled foreign tourists.
After taking place three times in Prague as European First Aid Day, and a forced pause last summer due to the devastating floods, the mid-September weekend event was a celebration of the first ever World First Aid Day in the Czech capital.
"Today is a global celebration of solidarity, the first World First Aid Day, which is organised in most national societies. It is more than 100 national societies all over the world, from Asia to Europe. You can see here some kind of promotion of Czech Red Cross and you can see simulated situations of accidents which are managed afterwards by teams of Czech Red Cross first aid. We have one or two tents where it is possible to try cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, then we have a special tent where you can see simulation of injuries, using make-up and, of course, we have some promotion material and we have some books and first aid course books and so on."
Do you think that many Czechs know how to giver first aid?
"Unfortunately not. It is obligatory when you ask for a driver's licence but the training is not on a high level as yet and we are trying to offer a lot of people a lot of courses, a basic course of twelve hours which even has the European First Aid Certificate; it means it is valid all over Europe. But till now the knowledge of first aid among the population is not so high. If it is at least five percent of the population, we will be very happy. It depends on the situation in the area. In some areas or villages it is okay, in others not. As usual, in big cities it is worse."
Do you think the situation was better before the fall of communism?
"I don't know, I'm afraid it's the same. Before 1989 it was civil defence groups and civil defence training was obligatory for everybody and people hated it. A part of the training was also first aid. And from that time, perhaps, some people are not so fond of it."
Pavel Stajer, a senior instructor of Czech Red Cross.
As he mentioned, the knowledge of first aid skills among Czechs is quite poor. Although everybody is obliged by law to give first aid to an injured person, and faces up to six months in jail for failing to do so, it is not a rare sight that cars pass the scene of a road accident without even stopping.
Around 1,400 people die on Czech roads each year. An astonishing number. Pavel Stajer says that many lives could have been saved, had first aid been given in time to the injured.
First aid is no rocket science, says Pavel Stajer. There are a few basic rules and if everybody knew them, many lives could be spared. The basics are: ensure breathing and circulation and stop heavy bleeding.
I went through the Red Cross tents and watched the young instructors teaching first aid skills to weekend shoppers and passers-by.
"Quick action is necessary. A casualty who is not breathing, or is bleeding heavily, requires immediate assistance. If quick effective first aid is provided, then the casualty has a much better chance of a good recovery," a young man in a red uniform tells a teenage girl whose mother is watching her kneel down and examine a first-aid dummy. "First of all, it is necessary to check whether the casualty is breathing. That can be done by listening, looking and feeling for breath. If the person is not breathing, we need to establish an open airway, which is done very simply by tilting the forehead back so that the casualty can breathe easily. If the airway is obstructed, roll the casualty onto one side and remove any visible obstruction from the person's mouth. Then you may have to start mouth-to-mouth breathing."
I watched the first clumsy attempts of onlookers who tried to "revive" the dummy, lying on its back on the pavement. The hardest were the chest compressions. The instructors explained: "Compress the chest at a rate of 100 per minute. To adults and older children, give fifteen compressions and then two breaths. Then return your hands quickly to the correct position on the chest and then give the next compressions and breaths."
Always call professional help as soon as possible.
The emergency numbers in the Czech Republic are 155 for ambulance, 150 for fire-fighters and 158 for the police. Foreigners who are not familiar with these numbers can call the single European SOS number 112 where the operators speak foreign languages and will redirect the caller to either health emergency, police or the fire-fighters.
As Pavel Stajer of Czech Red Cross told me, first aid is a gesture of humanity which makes the difference between life and death, but also between indifference and solidarity, between apathy and action. World First Aid Day is an attempt to inform the public about the basics and also the importance of first aid because nobody knows in what situation we may find ourselves the next time when minutes may save life.
