Check, Call, Care

After 7 years of life guarding, first aid and CPR training I was finally able to put my skills to use. Granted it wasn’t at the pool, but at the food court in the mall. And the victim wasn’t someone who was running on a wet pool deck, it was my sister.

Last week the Red Cross ran a special.  Have a student ID, donate blood, get a Cedar Point ticket.  My siblings decided to take part in this promotion.  Emily was the first to go.  She donated, ate her pretzels, drank her lemonade, and then stopped by my office to pick me up for lunch.

We headed to the mall because I needed to get a bachelorette present for Lora and the only option was Victoria's Secret.  We made our selection pretty quickly and headed to get some lunch. 

We chose Subway because my favorite Chinese place no longer exists in the mall.  Not sure why though, they were always busy.  And I can guaruntee it wasn't their neighbor the Cajun place who put them out of business.

Please note: While I was standing in line at Subway I could not figure out why so suddenly it felt like it was 105 degrees in the mall.  I then realized I was standing just feet away from the open oven door. 

And back to the story, I had ordered and Emily was putting her order in.  She then looked at me and said she didn't feel well and was going to sit down.  I finished telling the gal what I wanted and looked over to see Emily start to slouch.  I knew she was going down (that sounds very dramatic, but it really wasn't).  I quickly told the Subway lady that I needed a Coke asap and explained I'd pay for it after I took it to my sister.  I turned around to check on Emily again and she looked like she was about to fall out of her chair.  So I ran over to hold her up, but needed the Coke for her to drink to bring her back around.  I then looked at the Subway counter and saw the checkout ladies staring at me.  It was this point I asked for someone to actually bring the Coke to me and also deducted that first aid training was not a requirement for knowing how to make and sell sandwiches. 

While I was holding Emily up and asking for the Coke (which was brought to me by the nice guy who had been standing in line behind me) I was approached by a lady in scrubs who asked it everything was all right.  I explained that Emily had just donated blood and asked if the lady was a nurse.  Turns out she wasn't.  Not sure why she was wearing scrubs and felt the need to come over if she wasn't a nurse. 

Once we had the Coke (and a straw) Emily was able to drink and come to.  Upon seeing her drinking Scrubs Lady looked at me and said "She's drinking, she'll be fine."  While I was aware of that thanks to my training, I'm not too sure how she knew.  After all, she didn't have any training.  Even if she did have training, I bet the training wasn't from Susie!

And the story pretty much ends there.  We deducted that Emily's lack of breakfast and having stood in front of the Subway oven right before feeling ill, led to her demise (to harsh?).

Let's recap:
:: I was finally able to put my skills to use.  Thank you Susie!
:: River Valley Mall does not have a very good response team.  It was only after Emily had drank the entire Coke that security came over to check on her.
:: Subway employees need to take some sort of quick response class.  When someone is holding up their sister so she doesn't fall out of the chair and asking for a Coke, it's best to actually move and not stand and stare.
:: While I got to use my life saving skills, I forgot the three C's: Check, Call, Care.  Well, I did check and I did care, but I did not call.  But based on everyone else in the mall's reaction the call probably wouldn't have helped.
:: I realize that Coke probably wasn't the best thing to bring her to, but once she could hold her head up on her own I did get her apple juice to drink instead.