When Jessica, a nanny, attended a Safe and Sound paediatric first aid course she had no idea that within a month she would be using her first aid skills to save the life of an 18 year old girl.
It was St Patrick’s Day and Jessica was in the West End with some friends watching the procession. Suddenly a young girl collapsed on the floor. “I couldn’t believe that we were in the middle of Leicester Square with thousands of people milling around and nobody went to help,” said Jessica.
“I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to do anything, but when I saw that the girl was not responding and not breathing I knew I had to start CPR. I felt very nervous but I remembered what the Safe and Sound trainer had told us on the course and just put it into action. ”
Jessica continued CPR for 7 minutes until the paramedics arrived.
“It was exhausting and it felt like I was doing it forever,” she said, “but it was amazing just how the training all came back to me. When the paramedics took over I was completely overwhelmed.”
The paramedics told Jessica that “without a doubt she had saved the young girl’s life.
“I am so glad that I did the course and I keep thinking about what might have happened to the girl had I not had jumped in to help.
From now on I will be regularly updating my CPR.”
It’s only when something like this happens that we realise just how important it is to know what to in an emergency situation and as you can see from Jessica’s story it really can make the difference between life and death.
