Asian Games boosting first-aid skills

An instructor shows students how to perform CPR at the Luoshe Center School in Huzhou city, Zhejiang province, on May 8. WANG ZHENG/FOR CHINA DAILY

A growing number of people are learning lifesaving abilities, including CPR. Wang Xiaoyu reports from Hangzhou.

As students at Hangzhou Normal University, in the capital of Zhejiang province, were busily hunting for their parcels at the campus pickup station, some cast curious glances at resuscitation mannequins placed in a kiosk near the entrance. A few even stopped to examine the materials and kits on display.

"We have set up this hands-on first-aid experience kiosk here because about 60 percent of our students live near this location and the high foot traffic helps ensure they are exposed to it," said Lin Chenhong, an instructor at the Red Cross Club on the main campus in Yuhang district.

Lin estimated that about 300 to 400 students try out two first-aid skills — CPR and the Heimlich maneuver — at the kiosk every year, and 60 to 70 percent of them end up enrolling in official first-aid training sessions and gaining related certificates.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is a lifesaving technique that involves pressing firmly and regularly on the chest and giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to help save the life of a person having a cardiac arrest before professional help arrives. The Heimlich maneuver is a method of using abdominal thrusts to force air from the lungs and dislodge any object stuck in the windpipe of someone who is choking.

"We hope the little kiosk will spark an interest in first aid among more students, especially those who are not studying medicine, and motivate them to understand the significance of learning these skills," Lin said.

Gearing up for the gala

As Hangzhou and five other cities nearby prepare to host the 19th Asian Games from Sept 23 to Oct 8, Lin said that more events will be rolled out targeting volunteers for the sporting gala, covering more complicated first-aid techniques. The classes will include the use of automated external defibrillators, aka AEDs, to deliver electric shocks to people having heart attacks.

The city's push to build first-aid preparedness and response capacity has accelerated since June 2021, when the Central Guidance Commission on Building Spiritual Civilization designated the city's first-aid campaign as one of its grassroots-level trial projects designed to offer experience and lessons that can be promoted nationwide.

The Hangzhou authorities later released a guideline that aimed to improve training in first-aid knowledge and skills among people, equipping public facilities with AEDs and other essential equipment, and integrating the city's ambulance dispatch system, the first-aid volunteer information system and information about AED placement. So far, about 350,000 people in Hangzhou have received first-aid certificates.

The city has a population of about 12.4 million, meaning that three in every 100 people are capable of delivering assistance, local authorities said.

They added that about 100,000 certified individuals have become first-aid volunteers, meaning that if an emergency occurs in their vicinity, the city's emergency service command system will decide whether the situation requires volunteers to rush there. "Since June 2021, such volunteers have given successful first-aid treatment to more than 20 patients," they said.

First encounter

Xia Zhenhui, a 24-year-old employee of a local property management company and a marathon runner, said he first approached the local Red Cross Society in early 2019.

"I often took part in marathons in college and heard stories about runners collapsing and losing their lives due to a heart attack," he said.

"The stories prompted me to think about what I could do if my family members or friends suffered such an incident."

Xia completed the required training, and received a certificate in March 2019.

"Six months later, on a September afternoon, my phone began beeping and I saw a message saying that a person 615 meters from me required help as he was unconscious and not breathing," he said. "I froze for a brief moment. The app for us volunteers had gone online less than a month before and I had only registered recently. But I very quickly collected myself because I knew time was vital at that moment."

When someone is unconscious and not breathing, permanent brain damage begins after four minutes without oxygen, and death can occur about four to six minutes after that, medical experts said.

Xia unlocked a public bicycle and dashed to the scene. "I immediately showed the emergency medics on site that I was a certified volunteer and we performed CPR on the patient — a 70-year-old man," he said. "I was very nervous, constantly asking myself whether or not my hand was in the right position and if the compressions were being carried out at the right rhythm. Thankfully, the man quickly started breathing again."

In July 2020, Xia helped someone who had accidentally touched a high-tension line and stopped breathing.

"However, in 2021 I was unable to save the life of a senior who collapsed from a heart attack — his family members thought he had heatstroke and did not call the emergency services in time. When I arrived at his home and began carrying out CPR, it was too late," he said.

The incident prompted Xia to study to become a trainer that year to help raise the number of people capable of performing CPR and other first-aid skills.

"As a tutor, I often show common incorrect CPR techniques to my students in an exaggerated way to make the training sessions more interesting and help them remember the right method," he said.

Next step 

Zeng Tao, an official at the Red Cross branch in Hangzhou's Xihu district, said that there are currently about 400 first-aid trainers like Xia in the district.

"The next step is to further improve their teaching capability," he said. "Meanwhile, as the 19th Asian Games approaches, it is also important to consolidate information about first-aid materials, such as AEDs, across the district to better manage and use them if an emergency occurs."

Zeng said the district saw more than 12,000 people undertake first-aid training last year, up from 2,000 to 3,000 several years ago.

"I think increased awareness campaigns and the use of online registration systems for training sessions have helped lead to the rise," he said.

Contact the writer at wangxiaoyu@chinadaily.com.cn