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Teenage twin saved by first aid

By Brad Smith
March 24, 2009 at 4:51 pm

I was really amazed to read about Gemma Houghton on the Daily Mail’s website, who being an identical twin, sensed her sister was in trouble, stormed in to the bathroom, where she was having a bath, and resuscitated her sister with through skills learnt via first aid training.

What would I have done in that situation? Assuming I was on my own, once I’d assessed the situation and establish that she wasn’t breathing, I’d have phoned an ambulance. Then I would have rescued her sister from the bath, opened the airway, checked for breathing, and assuming normal breathing was absent, suspecting that she’d taken lots of water on board, I’d have given five rescue breaths, before commencing cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

Does this process seem unfamiliar to you? If so, why don’t you learn first aid skills like Gemma? Watch this video to get started:

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I was also interested to read that The Mail says that Gemma thinks first-aid lessons should be made compulsory:

Gemma, a trainee hairdresser, believes first-aid lessons should be made compulsory. ‘You never know when someone is going to need it,’ she said.

So do we. That’s what our Life. Live It campaign is all about.

Have you got any first aid stories you’d like to share?


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