One, Two , three.........

My husband, The Professor, is working away again for the next few days and today after dropping him off at the station, I am due to take part in my yearly CPR training.
Contrary to general belief, full cardiac arrests on intensive care are few and far between. this is because most sudden deteriorations in patients' conditions are usually preempted by good medical and nursing practise.
During my thirty odd years as a practising nurse I must have performed resuscitation perhaps 30 times.
28 times in hospital settings and twice in the community
I have performed CPR on a bulldog which was a challenge given the size of her mouth and once brought back an indian runner duck from the dead after she had strangled herself in some netting.

Nowadays , most people have an idea of what to do in the event of a witnessed cardiac event. The training has been simplified so that any lay person can get stuck in, sing the BeeGee's " Staying Alive " to themselves and compress someone's chest successfully.
Resuscitation , thankfully, is not the domain of health care professionals anymore!

I once chatted to a woman who had collapsed outside the Town Hall in Sheffield. She had suffered a full cardiac arrest and was brought back from the brink of death by two workmen in hard hats who had been working on some nearby roadworks.
I asked her what she remembered of the event.
" not much" , she answered " But when I came to, I did remember thinking that that it was slightly odd that one of those blokes had my worst grey bra slung over his shoulder"