BLS Training: Learn how to Save Life

Accident can happen anywhere and anytime without any warning. It is very

unpredictable. We may face someone on an emergency situation because of accident like traffic

injury, cardiac arrest, or being choked, which can cause sudden death. Every year up to 250.000

cases of cardiac arrest happens in Indonesia, and less than 5% of those who have a cardiac arrest

outside of a hospital survive. Moreover, according to Indonesian National Police Data, on the

early of 2012, the rate of traffic accident in Indonesia reached 9.884 cases, and caused 1547

deaths. There are no specific data about choking death in Indonesia, but in US, choking killed

about 2,500 people in 2009. Of course, fast and structured management is crucial for victim in

life threatening situation, but unfortunately, ambulance or paramedics often come late. So for us,

laypeople, what should we do? Can we just see the victim dying without giving any help? This

condition will be different if we know about Basic Life Support. Mastering Basic Life Support is

very important, especially when we are facing emergency situations like the case above.

Basic Life Support (BLS) is medical procedures which are performed in emergency

situation. The aim of BLS is to maintain oxygen supply to the brain, heart, & other vital organs

on the victim’s body until the victim get proper medical care, like Advanced Life Support, from

medical team. Insufficiency of oxygen supply will trigger the death of brain cell after five

minutes, and this process is irreversible. Therefore by giving BLS we can save victim’s life at

least until the ambulance come. Due to the fact that only small number of people who know BLS

skill, the victim cannot get any primary life support, and it contribute to the victim death

acceleration. This condition is also compounded with the distance between accident location and

medical centre.

BLS includes three main components which are known as ABC of BLS (but for cardiac

arrest cases known as CAB of BLS). The three main components are open airway, check

breathing, and check circulation by pulse palpating. If we find that the victim has no breathing

and pulse, we should administer CPR by giving chest compressions and ventilation. We can read

about step by step of BLS everywhere, from books or the internet, but learning BLS without

teacher is obviously dangerous. For example, doing airway management like head tilting or chin

lifting manoeuvre on traffic injury victim with cervical trauma is prohibited, and we should put

cervical collar before moving the victim. That information is often missed from written BLS

guide, especially for laypeople, that is why completing BLS training, not only knowledge, is

needed. Chest compression, which is also one of BLS sequences, seemed very easy to do. People

may think it only putting your weight on victim’s chest. Of course, it is not that simple. From

BLS training we can learn how is the right hand position, how deep we have to press victim’s

chest, and also how frequent the pressure is.

In addition, self-safety is also one of the most important parts of BLS training. We can

learn that our safety is much more precious than the victim. We will be taught how to save

bleeding victim carefully. Because nobody want to suffer from blood transmitted disease like

Hepatitis B. Hero is still a human, we may save people but do not harm ourselves. There are

some cases all over the world where doctors and paramedics are exposured with Hepatitis B

infected blood incidentally. This is serious problem, because Hepatitis B is very difficult to treat,

and it will the predominant cause of Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Even though the BLS skill is very crucial, there are only few places which provide BLS

training and certification for non-medical profession, and the cost is pretty expensive. We have to

spend around Rp 500.000 – Rp 3.000.000. This is happened because the training use special

mannequin, and it also take a long time, like 2-4 days. Most people may feel burdened to pay a

lot of money for this training. Therefore, government must provide affordable BLS certification.

Furthermore, it will be great if BLS training is included in the school curriculum, so everyone

can anticipate emergency scenes. Even in Northern Ireland, there is a BLS course which is

designed for 10-12 year old children, it is called ABC for life program.

However, BLS training for laypeople should not be considered to deny the role of

medical professions. This effort should be understood as our intention to prevent risk because of

accident. As a results, maybe in the future, we can see that the rate of mortality and morbidity

rate on emergency case will be decreased significantly. Research by Stiell, et.al. in Canada shows

that the rate of death among all patients decreased from 14.3% to 12.4% by administering proper

Basic Life Support and Advanced Life Support.

In summary, every emergency situation in our society will be handled properly if many

people mastered BLS skill. The victim may get well management and can survive from life

threatening condition. Medical or paramedical team will also get the benefit. They can

immediately give Advanced Life Support after reaching the victim, so the chance of victim’s

survival will be higher. Since accident can happen anywhere and anytime, why we don’t take

BLS training immediately? Let’s mastering BLS skill now! So, we will know what to do if we

are facing emergency case.