The experiences

It's motivating to see experiences of people that have helped people in need of aid, whether this is resuscitation or first aid.

I am a 68 year old man. When I was 25 years old I volunteered at the fire brigade.

It was sometime in the evening that a call came in. House fire! We knew that a family of 4 lives in the house. We didn't know if they were already safely out of the house or still inside. The adrenaline rushes through your body. You quickly put on your equipment and leave with a team. On my way to the house I was thinking about possible scenarios. When we arrived we saw a house ablaze. Flames came from the roof. With 3 we prepared to enter the house. Soon we found the mother and a child on the ground floor. The father had just returned from work, we were informed by the radio that there was another child somewhere in this conflagration. We went upstairs and we became demoralized. The stairs were very dangerous, parts of the house were starting to break down. I was practically blind because of the smoke development. But you go on and fight on, because this child had to be saved. Upstairs I quickly found the child. The child was black from the smoke, it was still coughing and was crying because it was afraid! I took the child with me. We couldn't take the stairs anymore since this was too dangerous. We were able to exit safely through the window. The child was immediately given oxygen. While I was insisting on it, the paramedics said that the child had suffered from a cardiac arrest because it had too little oxygen in the housefire. The world stood still for a moment, so young and a cardiac arrest. I asked what to do. Me and the other paramedic started giving compressions while someone else was ventilating. Fortunately, the child got through and had no rest injuries. When it happened, I didn't know what to do at first. You just react because you know what to do. You focus on giving compressions with the other 2 paramedics. And all the rest of the people were crying or shouting. I no longer heard, it disappeared into the background. The moment you see that there is a heartbeat, feels amazing. It gives a kick.

I am Amber, from Vives Dopomoha (20 years old). I also saved someone once. 

It may not have been cardiac arrest, but drowning and hypothermia. I was riding my bicycle when I suddenly saw someone in the brook. The first moment I thought: 'What are you doing in the brook?' The person could have come out by himself perfectly. But I decided  to ask if I could help him.

I soon realized that it was someone with a mental disability and that he had fallen into the brook and was unable to get out. I ran over to the brook and tried to get him out with all the strength I had. Because the water was on his lips. I didn't have enough strength to get him out of the brook completely. I checked his airway and breathing. The boy was able to breathe safely so I asked for help when cars were passing by, by waving my arms violently. And as always, I didn't have my cell phone to call the emergency. Soon two cars had stopped and pulled the young man completely out of the brook. Someone else took a blanket out of their car, while the other driver was calling the emergency services. I didn't know any of those people, but everyone listened to each other and what was proposed. I said it was a good idea for getting a blanket and for calling the emergency services. This was also new to me. It was the first time I helped someone with hypothermia. I remained calm, because the man with a disability was in a panic. I didn't go along with the panic / fear of others. I breathed in and out calmly, allowing me to think clearly. I quickly asked the man questions: who are you, how do you get here and reassured him everything was going to be fine. I was very happy that one of the persons who stopped, was a nurse. She was the one who had a rescue blanket. We could take off his sweatshirt and t-shirt with two and put the rescue blanket around him. Soon the emergency services and the police came to us to offer help. At first I wondered why the police came here. The police had explained to me, that it was a disturbing disappearance and that they came to see if I had found the person they were looking for. Many said that the man was really lucky that I passed by. Because when you drive the car, you could have never seen that there was someone in the brook. I felt very euphoric that I helped that person. And that I learned new things from this experience. Next time I will do somethings different based on what I have learned.

I am Stephanie, 30 years old and working as a nurse aid in a hospital.

Reanimating, it's a subject we hear and learn about so much as caregivers. We learn how important it is and that you can save a person's life. It all sounded a little bit 'unreal' to me before I started working.

It has been almost 12 years since I first started working in the healthcare sector. Never, and I really mean this, would I have expected that after 12 years, I would have resuscitated five people. The first time when this ever happened, I barely could believe what was happening to me. I couldn't believe that it was me, who found find this unconscious, 'dead' man. Eventually this thought only lasted for a fraction of a second and I just did what I had to do and what others expected from me. I called for my colleagues, pressed the reanimation button and started reanimating! Every other reanimation that followed, I did the exact same thing.

Every reanimation is an unique experience. It's an experience you share with your colleagues who are there at that exact moment. It sounds like a big responsibility and somewhere that it exactly what it is. It is especially important that you just do what is right. I have seen colleagues of mine who freeze, others run away and then you have colleagues who just get right into it, together with me. And those responses are okay. Whatever your experience with reanimation may be, it is an experience that helps you grow not only through your carreer, but also on a personal level.

My experience has taught me that you will never be alone during this process, a resuscitation is something you do together. Of the five resuscitations I performed, three people had been brought over to the intensive care unit. Two of them had passed away. Of those five people, there is only one person still alive. It is not a spectacular number, BUT I, together with the people who surrounded me at that moment, helped that person to get through it and we gave back his life. That leaves me to say one more thing: not all heroes wear capes!