Emergency Training

An English teacher once told me an essay should never start with a date. However, the events surrounding this date have had such a profound affect on my life and my desire to make changes to benefit others, I thought it only fitting to start with this date

June 9, 2000. Suddenly I was awoken by a shrilling scream, "He's blue, he's blue, call 911! Not knowing what was going on, I ran towards the screams only to find my little brother's, lifeless body in my mother's arms. Without hesitation, I grabbed him, put him on the floor and dropped to my knees. One and two and three and four and five, breathe. I counted as I performed CPR, a skill I am very thankful to have learned six years earlier after watching my grandmother succumb to a sudden cardiac arrest while I was vacationing alone with her. Nine long minutes went by until the paramedics arrived. It seemed like eternity, but I wasn't going let him die, I wasn't prepared to relive the pain of six years earlier. And as it turns out, I ...