The American Red Cross of Upstate South Carolina serves Greenville, Abbeville, Anderson, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick, and Pickens Counties.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

First Aid Training Put into Practice at Upstate Lowe's

Veteran First Aid/CPR/AED Instructor Lenora Cuddy and a group of her former students had occasion to use their First Aid training recently at a Greenville Lowe's store. Some Lowe's employees, who had previously taken an American Red Cross First Aid class with Lenora as their Instructor, snapped into action and responded like a well-oiled machine to an emergency in their parking lot.

This is Lenora's story, as told told to Linda Conrad, Director of Health & Safety for the ARC of Upstate SC:

Dear Linda,

Wow! I can’t believe I get to write you this letter. As one of your Red Cross instructors for many years now I have often wondered if my students would really remember what to do in the event of a real emergency, today I got my answer.

Roughly at somewhere around 1:45 today I was arriving at the Lowe’s on Woodruff Road (one of my former classes for the Red Cross). Just as I stepped out of the car I heard a loud cry for help. I looked around and found an older lady with a huge gash on her leg. Both she and her elderly husband were screaming for help and asking someone to call 911. Several onlookers ran into the store and one offered a towel to soak up the blood.

My medical background and Red Cross training took hold and I sprang into action I placed my hand in a Lowe’s plastic bag for protection applied direct pressure to a gash that was roughly 4” long. She was bleeding heavily so I elevated her leg. During questioning she told me that she was taking a blood thinner. I made the 911 call off my cell phone. I know this sounds like I am tooting my own horn, but it is what happened when the Lowe’s employees showed up that most impressed me. They took control of the area and started asking the right questions and securing the scene. One of them arrived with the BBP [Bloodborne Pathogens] spill kit and made sure that the area was secure and cleaned properly after our patient was taken to the hospital. I smile even now as I remember one of them looking at me and going “Hey aren’t you our Red Cross Lady”, and then reassuring the victim what good hands she was in.

Linda, there are no words to tell you how proud I was of this group and how good it felt to finally know without a doubt that we do make a difference (today what I taught the employees at Lowe’s made a difference). I hope this made you smile and that you feel as much pride as I do in the staff at Lowe’s.

Fondly,

Lenora Cuddy
Instructor


All it takes is a phone call to register for a First Aid class. In less than four hours you too can have the training it takes to feel confident that you will know how to react in an emergency situation such as this.

For Greenville area classes, call 271-8222
Anderson 225-8666
Greenwood/Abbeville/McCormick 229-3102
Laurens 938-6306
Pickens 878-0131
Oconee 638-5619
Spartanburg/Cherokee/Union 583-8000

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