By Dave Thomas
You see it happening. You know it’s too late to stop, and sure enough the sound of squealing rubber and crunching metal reaches your ears. You throw your car into park and hit the hazards, pop the seatbelt and hop out to do what you can.
Which is what? You’re no paramedic, nor are you a trauma doc. You’re not steeped in the magical art of saving lives when they need saving. Best case scenario you remember something from high school CPR class. You’re just a concerned citizen without a skillset, so you do what everyone else does and pull out your phone to call it in.
What if you could change that?
First, a tiny bit of back story: In another life, I got dragged to an EMT course by a buddy only to discover I truly enjoyed helping people. I know, shocking. If I had my say, that class would be a prerequisite for graduating high school. Wouldn’t care what you did with it afterwards, but that’s a skillset everyone should know.
Enter crews like Dark Angel Medical out of Colorado. Kerry Davis has ticked the boxes that need ticking to be covering down on this issue. With over 25 years as a military flight medic, ER nurse, and paramedic, consider Kerry and crew the gurus of front line medical voodoo. He and his team bounce all over the country teaching what they have coined “DART”, or Direct Action Response Training. Boiled down to bare bones, the course teaches you things you can do to keep Azreal from doing his job. I’ve gone through Kerry’s class twice now. I’ll probably do it a third time if life slows down again.
Now let’s tweak the original story a bit.
The car that got hit is sideways in front of you. Impact point is just about perfect in the drivers door, which is caved in. looking at the back of the car, you recognize the bumper sticker. It’s Jeff from down the street. Your kids play little league baseball together. The adrenaline spikes as you approach and realize he’s hurt bad. Conscious and breathing, but you see bright red arterial blood has already soaked his pant leg. A split-second of panic locks you up as you realize what is happening. And then you remember you just took that class with the southern dude and the pint-sized Navy Corpsman. Training kicks in and before you know it that tourniquet is high and tight, the windlass is locked, and you’ve already started checking for other less threatening traumas.
Bottom line? Take a class. Better yet, take a vetted class with verified instructors. Carry a kit, carry a gun and be equally proficient with both. Be prepared to do what needs to be done.
