Many Hands, One Goal

“How long does it take until someone loses consciousness if breathing stops?”

That was the opener of our first aid workshop with Malteser this week. Most of us were thinking in minutes. In reality, it takes around 15 seconds. After about 3 minutes without oxygen, brain cells begin to die. A short timeline, with very little room to hesitate.

So we started exactly there, with CPR. Practicing it step by step and repeating the sequence until the individual actions began to feel automatic. Because in a situation like that, there is no time to think through the next move. What matters is that your hands already know what to do.

From there, we shifted to what happens before things become critical. In stroke scenarios, it often starts with small signs (FAST). An uneven smile. One arm that won’t stay raised. Slurred speech. Simple observations that point to one thing: act fast.

Because emergencies rarely come without warning, but they escalate quickly. And once they do, every second is already in use. This is exactly what we trained for this week, together, step by step.

Let’s just say, you are in good hands here.