Heart Massage in Cha Am

It will happen to you: a friend or acquaintance collapses before your eyes. Cardiac arrest! Or a complete stranger. You stand with your hands in your (thrifty) hair. Heart massage and/or mouth-to-mouth resuscitation? The only question is how?

Doctor Chanchai Jarturanrassamee has a mission to accomplish in that regard. Teach as many people as possible how to act in these circumstances. Because every second counts. Chanchai is connected to the Petcharat Hospital in Cha am three days a week. The rest of the week he practices at the Sirirat in Bangkok.

In collaboration with Paul Graff's Okay Supermarket in Cha am, the doctor gave a mini course on the terrace of the store for almost twenty candidates, including the staff. Remarkable was the presence of many older foreigners from Cha am and relatively few Thai partners.

In chest compressions, speed is of the utmost importance, because every minute of delay reduces the chance that the person involved will survive. Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation is no longer advised in such cases these days, because you never know what illnesses the man or woman on the ground has among its members. Proper placement of hands on the ribcage is important to prevent rib fractures.

So everyone had to practice on the doll that was available on the terrace of Okay Supermarket. Doctor Chanchai added the song of the BeeGees, Staying alive. This is to make the hundred times pumping per minute more bearable. After all, heart massage, preferably by two people who can alternate (while the other calls 1669), is an extremely tiring activity. At the end of the mini-course, all participants received a certificate.