An eligible life saver

廣東 黃園園

當特蕾莎參加急救進修課程時，她不知道，僅在幾天后，自己會用到已學的技能來挽救他人的生命。

When Teresa Search attended a first aid refresher course, she had no idea that she'd be using her skills to save a life within a couple of days. “Our tutor prepared us, so the skills we learned could be used in the real world. At the end of the training, he asked us to keep in touch and give him feedback when we used them,” Teresa recalls.

Forty-eight hours after the course, her skills were tested. While on night duty at her workplace, a man collapsed in cardiac arrest （心臟停搏）. “Luckily I saw him go down and I was at his side very quickly. Everything that I had just relearned amazingly came to mind in an instant.”

Teresa quickly assessed （評估） the situation. There were no signs of life, so she turned him on his back, and told a staff member to call an ambulance. “I started CPR （心肺復蘇）. Once the defibrillator （除顫器） arrived, another first aider hooked it up （接通）while we kept going,” Teresa remembers.

When the man was treated, he showed some signs of life, but was unable to maintain adequate breathing. Teresa continued with resuscitation （復蘇） breathing until an ambulance arrived. “I called the hospital early the following morning and was relieved to be told that he was okay and that his name was Graham. The nurse put him on the phone to talk to me. He told me that it was a lovely day to be alive. Hearing his voice was incredible.”

While Graham's recovery is ongoing, Teresa's confidence in dealing with first aid emergencies has grown. “I want to thank my first aid tutor James Toaolamai for the awesome training and advice I received.”

Reading Check

Ⅰ. Fill in the blanks according to the text.

Stages for Teresa to help Graham

Stage one: Assessed the 1.

Stage two: Started CPR and then 2. Graham with defibrillator

Stage three: Continued with resuscitation breathing

Ⅱ. Read the text carefully and answer the following questions.

1. What did Teresa's tutor ask his students to do at the end of the training?

2. How did this first aid experience influence Teresa?

3. What words can be used to describe Teresa?

Language Study

Useful expressions

attend a first aid refresher course 參加急救進修課程

save a life 拯救生命

keep in touch 保持聯(lián)系

on night duty 值夜班

show some signs of life 有生命跡象

be unable to maintain adequate breathing 無法保持正常的呼吸