Saving Lives

A push on your chest, as deep as the bank cards (5-6 cm) we use daily can save someone's life. Did you know that?

Possibly you do. CPR— it's the term that might ring a bell now.

There has been a debate about security professionals on their roles and responsibilities in the UK. there are different levels in this profession, based on proficiency and knowledge. From the very basics for issues like confronting a person who might be looking suspicious but is just confused or seeking guidance to high-profile guards, crowd management, site securities— there is specific training for all. But stewarding being the most cost-effective security level, it’s quite popular and a best seller. As this is just an entry-level security job, it included lighter training and surface-level knowledge on monitoring and guiding people in events, lacking what it takes to tackle a critical situation and providing first aid treatment if necessary.

Earlier, when such emergencies occurred, stewards would simply overlook as it’s not part of their job. Now, they are not only responsible for safeguarding people but to taking initiative to keep the heart pumping until further help arrives. It’s a good thing in my opinion. People might get sick; this could be due to the event’s nature, i.e. gala nights when everyone is more or less heavily drunk. Usually, there are more stewards than niche specialists, so, having them trained for such occasions might come in handy. Besides, as the overseers of the crowd from close proximity, they will be on the front line to detect unusual behaviour due to potential sickness and report to the station promptly; thus saving lives.

Last year I had this chance to work as a steward in a high-profile company with a capacity of 20k guests in their events. Number isn’t the factor here but the nature of the event, everyone gets to drink as much as they want; of course, they pay for it and considerably more expensive than outside pubs but that doesn’t stop them from drinking to their fullest. The arena floods with booze every time the horses begin to race— you can smell it from a distance. Although most of them manage it on their own by throwing up in the toilets, incidents occur and there are medical teams patrolling left and right. But that’s not enough given the number of guests and available professionals. So, they decided this year to train up the team of existing stewards, good initiative. It’s mandatory for the company anyway.

So, it was an exciting day for me— getting to know all the real-life encounters with the experienced trainers and learning to offer possible support in need. Doing all the exercises on dummies. Seemingly a piece of cake, in reality, it’s not a joke. It takes strength— both physical and mental. Witnessing the agony of the patient and calmly approaching them to help takes more than guts. Some of the trainees almost panicked seeing the graphic scene of wounds, cuts, and accidents. What if they encounter such a situation in reality, perhaps they will ignore or at worst, medical teams will have to treat them both instead of one.

Besides, some of them were old enough to continue chest thrusting/CPR for consecutive minutes until the support might arrive. Maintaining the compression rate (100-120 push/minute) is really exhausting. And it’s not just pushing, you have to push hard enough to manually pump blood in and out of the heart. I was tired just after 60 pushes, I suspect they can barely make it to 30 good pushes, forget 120 per minute or if the support takes 5 minutes to come, in that case, 600 pushes… phew. Nevertheless, it’s a lesson we all must learn, if we cannot do it, at least we can instruct someone else to carry on— who knows this might save a valuable life someday.

_{Jason Yuen on Unsplash}