A little knowledge saved a life

In my previous story i had talked about a child who loved the word "Tata". This incident had happened to her grandmother.

This grandmother who was quite active and healthy, one day suddenly collapsed on the floor of her living room with no apparent reason. Her daughter-in -law rushed from the kitchen after hearing this heavy thud of a sound. The elderly lady lay there bundled and lifeless. Her daughter-in-law wailed and cried loud. Quite immediately the neighbours rushed to the spot and tried to revive her with little sprinkling of water. When she didnt react, someone placed a finger below her nose and found she wasnt breathing anymore. Her heart wasn't beating too. Everybody declared her dead.

This was apparently a cardiac arrest. The crowd swelled around this house, and there was lot of commotion & crying. These sounds alerted my mom, though we stayed 3 houses to the right of this house. She too rushed to find this granny on the floor, and it was a good 2 minutes after this happened. My mom was little well read and she had read about CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation). She immediately asked the crowd to clear the area to allow fresh air to flow, and then she placed the lady flat on the floor, and started rhythmically applying pressure on her chest. Within 3 to 4 seconds of this procedure, the old lady suddenly gave out a jerk and a shudder. She breathed back to life, while the crowd was quite surprised and spellbound to watch this happen. A life was saved.

It takes only a minute to learn CPR, but it can save a life. In the instant case, my mom hadn't done the mouth to mouth resuscitation, though the simple act of thumping her chest saved the lady's life.