Vital Skills

If you are a teenager in an emergency situation and have to provide first aid, what do you do first?

Bruce Carr, a Thousand Oaks-based certified first-aid instructor, says, “Remember the three C’s: Check the scene. Call 911. Care for the victim.”

He’ll explain each C--and more--Saturday at a full-day first-aid workshop for kids 12 to 17 at the Teen Center in Thousand Oaks.

At the beginning of the session, which he conducts quarterly, he explains, “Checking the scene means inventorying the victim’s situation: Try to find out what happened, determine vital signs like breathing, bleeding, symptoms of shock, safety from additional harm.”

The point is that students must be prepared for their call to 911, able to give crucial information, including location.

“Knowing the proper information to give the 911 dispatcher is important,” he continues. “Then, care for the victim by restoring breathing or stopping bleeding or treating for shock--and don’t move them unless they’re in a life-threatening situation like a fire,” he says.

Having started with this burst of information and energy, Carr, who is also a swimming coach, keeps up the pace with demonstrations on such things as how to staunch bleeding and splint broken bones.

When conducting a daylong workshop for kids in this age group, he says, “You have to keep them busy, keep them moving.”

The full range of first aid techniques demonstrated is impressive: appropriate splints for sprains, strains and broken bones; procedures for dealing with head injuries (don’t move the victim); and advice on treating severe allergic reactions, seizures, convulsions, burns and poisoning.

But, Carr stresses to students, “You can’t diagnose people. That’s for a doctor to do.”

He teaches his students what to do “up to treatment”--by which he means dealing with the most life-threatening situations, such as bleeding, restricted breathing and broken bones, until professional help arrives.

One of Carr’s goals is to prepare kids to take a written 25-question First Aid Certification test at the end of the day. “What I’m telling them is all on the test,” he says.

It’s voluntary, but without taking the test, kids can’t get a course-completion certificate--in the form of a card signed by the instructor--which they’ve paid for when they enroll.

Some students may wish to supplement the experience by buying the $20 American Red Cross manual, “Community First Aid and Safety.”

Carr will have copies available at the workshop, or it can be bought at several local Red Cross offices.

Carr’s courses at the Teen Center are popular and fill up fast. But if a youth can’t get into one of his classes, he encourages taking a first aid course offered at Red Cross locations in Ventura, Port Hueneme or Simi Valley.

BE THERE

First Aid Certification Workshop, Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Teen Center, 1375 E. Janss Road, Thousand Oaks. $20. Reservations required. (805) 494-5156. For other locations, call the American Red Cross, (805) 339-2234.