Nolan's A Little Safer

I wanted to let you know that Nolan's a little safer tonight because Kolleen and I attended an Infant CPR class at Legacy Emanuel Hospital's NICU. It goes without saying that attending a class of this nature is like buying insurance or learning a martial art - you hope you never need to use it but...

It was expertly led by a NICU Critical Care Registered Nurse who had obviously taught the class a bazillion times but kept it fresh with a good sense of humor. She presented a lot of very useful information about cardiological and pulmonary conditions that parents of prematurely-born infants might encounter. I can't remember exactly which conditions preemies are more susceptible to but there were a couple that a baby like Nolan might be more likely to encounter than a full-term baby.

We spent quite a while with infant-sized manequins that allowed an eirily realistic hands-on experience for what it would be like to perform CPR on a baby. We learned the ABC's and 2's and 30's of the CPR on an infant. As a bonus we learned how to clear an infant's airway of a blockage in case of choking. Both of these acts make me flinch at the prospect of doing it on a baby but I'm confident that adrenaline would take over and I wouldn't second guess saving a life. Luckily for me there were a lot of handouts that were given to refresh our memories after the class was a memory.

Again, we don't ever want to have to use the techniques we learned today but I think both of us will sleep a little better knowing that we've been trained as well as possible in case of an emergency.

Dave