I went for a two full days 1st Aid training with the Council. I did enjoy it, though I was worried about not being able to memory all the stuff that I have learned in the past two days. However, the idea that I was getting was good enough to gain me some confidence. Now I am more aware of what the right thing to do at the moment is supposed to look like.
We practised a bit on a lot of things in the course, such as bandaging and how to put on a sling for fractures, as well as how to do a CPR on different types of people, like infants, young kids and big and small adults. Gee, I didn’t know that giving a CPR is a such a hard job. I nearly was out of my breath when I was doing those 30 compressions on a mummy. I felt that I had “killed” all of them instead of rescuing them.

I guess it was fun in the class, but seriously it certainly won’t be in a real world if someone has to give a CPR in the scene. Imagine all the energy that you have to have to perform a physical part of rescue and the mental stress level that you could expect, especially when the emergency happens on your loved ones. I guess most likely I would lose my nerves and not know what to do at that point of time I just hope that I can still remember the emergency number 000:-)

Believe it or not, I had used ambulance service 3 times myself since I came to Australia, not including those a couple of times that I ran to drive myself to the hospital almost desperately. I know at my age and over only about several years of time, that’s a lot of usage. I still remember those stressful moments at the night time that I had no one around to seek help and I didn’t know what was going on. That’s why I put those ambulance paramedic people in my top trust list as I know once I call out an ambulance, I sort of have handed over someone’s life to others.

Even though nowadays everybody knows a bit stuff about 1st Aid, if something urgent happens, the best way to get help is still to ring ambulance instead of drive yourself to hospital, as the modern technology and equipment that ambulance services have can make sure the higher chance of successful rescue. Certainly I wish I would never need to contact an ambulance in the future, but the whole world doesn’t always do things as you had hoped, does it?

Only one thing I am curious about, the fee for using an ambulance. I knew Medicare doesn’t cover the ambulance service at all, but it seems we sometimes got a bill while other times we didn’t. I just don’t know what game was being played, or it was just one of those my “lucky days” that they forgot to charge me?

FYI, in NSW, ambulance fee charges basic $290 call out fee plus variable rate at $2.62 p/km from the pick-up place to the nearest hospital. So for a normal emergency scenario, you probably would expect to pay about $300.