Who am I and Why am I doing This?!

[uglyEMT]

I would like to add a little insight if I may to help the OP.

I went through a similar situation at my day job. A truck driver went into a seizure and everyone went batty. I walked over and simply check for an airway and stood by him until the seizing stopped. Protected his head with my hands as there was a pole pretty close by. All the while everyone was screaming to do something. Sometimes there is nothing to do but observe.

Seizures usually stop on their own and the patient comes out of it. Usually fuzzy or aggitated but after awhile comes around and usually doesnt remeber. No worries next time. Just protect them from hurting themseleves and watch the airway, they WONT swallow thier tongue but watch to make sure if they bit it or their cheeck the blood doesnt block the airway. If they are bleeding simply roll them on their side if possible and let it drain out.

As Dwain pointed out, why try comprssions when they are breathing? It probably was your coping mechanism at that point but remeber next time that if they are breathing NO compressions.

No here is a bit of knowledge that may help you next time around. if the patient really isnt breathing and has no pulse they ARE dead, you cant kill them anymore BUT you can HELP them. Get the AED, start compressions, have someone dial 911, follow the AEDs instructions. Sometimes you get lucky and everything falls into place and the stars align and the CPR saves the day, sometimes it doesnt. You didnt KILL the person, you tried to SAVE the person.

Don't worry over it too much. Try a ride along with a squad, most palces do, see if you would like it. If you want to take a course other then CPR but dont (after ride along) want to volunteer they do have first responder courses. Usually a little more indepth then standard CPR but less then a full blown EMT-Basic course. As for the AED in your place of business, its money well spent. Even if it helps just once it paid for itself, whats the price nowadays for a human life?

We are here to help, sometimes its tough love, but none-the-less we are here for you.

[fakingpatience]

IMO, CPR classes vary hugely by who is teaching them. I have taken CPR countless times before I became an EMT, and then had to take it again for EMT class, and then recently I took a lower level CPR class for my other job (not required but paid training time). You know what? I almost failed my last CPR class. The instructors IMO were awful. They did not allow students to think outside the box for the class, they taught "this is what we tell you to do, and you need to do it exactly our way." I got into an argument with them because they were marking me wrong for not leaning across the pt to shaking both their shoulders. I told them that in a real situation, I would never reach across someone like that, because what if they weren't dead? I would have just put myself in a compromising situation. My first CPR instructor in high school taught me that. My point being that you need to find a good CPR class. If you just have an instructor who teaches straight from the book, you aren't going to learn a lot of real life practices, you will only learn the mechanics of CPR. Try and find a first aid/ CPR course taught by your local EMS agency. There you should learn not only the mechanics of doing CPR, but before hand, checking for a pulse and breathing on the pt (although I think that my last CPR class, they said if they are not breathing, don't even bother checking for a pulse), and actually assessing if they need CPR, and if not, what to do. Hopefully your class will have scenarios for you to work through.

The only way you can get better is by practice. Hopefully you won't actually be practicing CPR on a real person..., but you can visualize what you would do if someone went down in your gym. If it isn't to traumatic for you, use your experience with the guy who had a seizure, visualize what happened, and what you should have done differently. It is a trick I kept from my days as an athlete, your coach tells you to picture scoring the goal, landing the flip; imagine yourself at a scene where you need to act, and see yourself going through all the correct steps. That has helped me 'practice' my EMT skills when I am not using them.

You can also look into advanced first aid courses that the red cross offers. It is less training than becoming an EMT, but IMO, if you only want the training for working in your gym, that is all you should need.

(sorry, hopefully the middle paragraph makes sense, if not let me know so I can clarify it)

[Teen EMT]

My advice is to get training in CPR and AED.

Everyone should be trained and it may save a life.

As for beating your self up, Don't.

You did not know what to do and thats fine that you didn't act like you did....just get training....best way to know how to be of use when you see someone go down.

[coolpunk]

You Should NEVER put anything in the mouth of a seizure patient its a big no no! i use to have seizures really bad but i have a good control of them. so i know from training and experience.