I’m not too sure on this one and its first aid remedies. I know that doing a quality first aid course in Canberra with Canberra First Aid will give you many of these healing features. You will learn how to treat lots of common first aid incidents when completing a first aid course with us. We can also offer private first aid courses at your venue so please contact us as soon as possible and book in.

You have seen it. You may have stepped on it. It is a very familiar, perennial weed that will penetrate a crack in a sidewalk, or diligently follow alongside a walkway or trail.

With common names such as “Snakeweed” or “Englishman’s Foot,” in some circles plantain, Plantago major, is regarded as a weed.  One of the “Super Weeds” that the chemical lawn industries have declared war on.

It is powerful indeed, and it is useful. This common plant thrives just about anywhere. This is plantain. I know it and use it regularly, and I am going to share a few of its uses that will have you looking forward to seeing it all season long.

Plantain has a long history of being used as a food plant and healing herb in many diverse cultures around the world. Native Americans used it to heal wounds, treat fever, and to draw out toxins from snakebites. They called the plant “White man’s foot,” as it sprang up wherever the Englishman settled.

It is a common little herb with ribbed, broad shaped leaves and a very subtle flower-spike. The leaves are soothing on external inflammation and can be used on bites and stings, rashes, burns and cuts. It has a drawing quality that is helpful in removing splinters, stingers, venom, or glass from a wound.

Keeping a tub of plantain salve ready can be useful in situations when you cannot be outside and find the herb seasonally. For its wound healing ability, I keep a container of it in my herbal first aid kit. It is soothing on skin conditions like eczema or psoriasis and handy for all kinds of skin irritations, burns and bites.

An infusion or strong tea of plantain leaf, fresh or dried, can be sprayed on sunburn or burns. I keep a little spritzer bottle of this tea in my refrigerator. It cools an afflicted area. This can also be used for rashes and reactions from poison ivy, oak or sumac. Drinking  plantain tea will also support your digestive system. It is helpful for situations of indigestion, heartburn or IBS. The tea is green, and mildly bitter tasting.

Here is the quickest way to use this healing herb. If you are lucky and find a patch of it growing in your garden or yard this season, keep note of where it emerges. You will want to know where you can find it if you need it for an emergency. Make sure that the plants have not been sprayed by either pesticides or pets. Take a few leaves and crush them between your palm or bruise them with a stone. Apply directly to the skin. If you are using it on yourself,  just chew the leaf and apply that to the skin.

I was once with my father when he was stung on the neck by a raging hornet while moving a piece of heavy equipment he needed. I looked immediately for plantain in the work yard, it is usually always growing somewhere nearby. I found one, picked a few of its leaves, chewed it and applied it to the back of his neck and covered the pulp with another whole leaf. It helped to draw out the stinger and relieve his pain. The pain for my father, not the hornet.

The hornet was pinned to a card, mounted on my father’s office bulletin board with a date. Next to it, a plantain leaf. To remind us all of its power.

Here it is the article you have all been waiting for. The best songs to perform CPR to. We like the staying alive song the best and use this in our course but all will be at a good speed. Book in to a first aid course to get trained in CPR as soon as you can. You never know when you will arrive at a CPR emergency.

• New York Presbyterian Hospital released a 40-track CPR playlist
• The songs have about 100 beats per minute, matching the rate of at least 100 chest compression per 60 seconds
• The Bee Gees’ 1977 hit Stayin’ Alive came out as the most recommended song
• Beyoncé’s Crazy in Love and Justin Timberlake’s Rock Your Body were also on the playlist

By Mary Kekatos For Dailymail.com

PUBLISHED: 09:41 +11:00, 24 March 2017 | UPDATED: 20:19 +11:00, 24 March 2017

Sometimes, music literally save lives.

In an effort to help train first responders in hands-only CPR, New York Presbyterian Hospital has released a 40-song playlist whose beats per minute match the number of chest compressions.

The Bee Gees’ 1977 hit – and aptly named – Stayin’ Alive took the number one spot.

Artists from Beyoncé to Justin Timberlake to ABBA also had songs on the set list.

Scroll down to listen to the playlist 

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On a 40-track playlist released by New York Presbyterian Hospital, Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees came out as the best song to perform CPR to

TOP 10 SONGS FOR SAVING LIVES

1. Stayin’ Alive – Bee Gees

2. Cecilia – Simon and Garfunkel

3. Hard to Handle – The Black Crowes

4. Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd

5. Rock Your Body – Justin Timberlake

6. I Will Survive – Gloria Gaynor

7. MMMBop – Hanson

8. Gives You Hell – The All-American Rejects

9. Heartbreaker – Mariah Carey ft Jay Z

10. Another One Bites the Dust – Queen

Stayin’ Alive, the disco hit made popular by the movie Saturday Night Fever, has a rhythm of 103 beats per minute.

This is close to the recommended rate of at least 100 chest compressions per 60 seconds that should be delivered during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

Additionally, doctors say, the song is well known enough to be useful in teaching the general public to effectively perform the lifesaving maneuver.

The 40-song list, which has a duration rate of two hours and 28 minutes of CPR jams, also includes songs like ABBA’s Dancing Queen and Beyoncé’s Crazy in Love.

Pop fans can enjoy tracks from Missy Elliot and Justin Timberlake, while alt-rock aficionados can choose from Fall Out Boy or the All-American Rejects.

Despite the number of times CPR ‘saves’ someone’s life on TV, it has an abysmal success rate in real life.

Only about eight percent of CPR patients are saved by the procedure, even when backup help is called immediately.

Those who’ve had to be saved with CPR are likely to experience other painful injuries, as well, such as crushed or ruptured organs.

However, performing CPR more than doubles the survival rate of patients who go into cardiac arrest.

THE CPR PLAYLIST

In a study, researchers at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine in Japan used new songs to instruct a group of newly-hired nurses to perform CPR.

‘The quality of CPR is the key to [helping] the victim recover,’ lead researcher Dr Yoshihiro Yamahata said.

‘Our solution to master adequate CPR skills is to put the educational words on several famous songs with 112 beats per minute and eight beats per measure, he said.

Researchers used two tracks in the study. The first was The Beatles’ Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, with educational words replacing the original lyrics.

The other track was an entirely new song composed by children, which the researchers called New Melody.

For the study, 74 nurses were divided into several groups. The nurses learned how to perform CPR to the beat of either the New Melody or Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.

Another group learned without music and instead used a device that provides verbal feedback on the efficacy of chest compressions.

This group was later tested without the device.

Results showed that the nurses performed chest compressions better with music and that CPR was best performed to Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.

The power that music has to help people memorize tasks has long been noted, in many settings other than just CPR, Dr Yamahata said.

In a music class for school children that he instructed, experimenting with adding educational words on famous animation songs helped them learn concepts better.

HOW TO PERFORM CPR

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a lifesaving technique useful in many emergencies, including heart attack or near drowning, in which someone’s breathing or heartbeat has stopped.

When the heart stops, the lack of oxygenated blood can cause brain damage in only a few minutes. A person may die within eight to 10 minutes.

CPR can keep oxygenated blood flowing to the brain and other vital organs until more definitive medical treatment can restore a normal heart rhythm.

The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends that everyone – both untrained bystanders and medical personnel alike – begin CPR with chest compressions.

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This is because the song has a rhythm of 103 beats per minute, which is close to the rate of at least 100 chest compressions per 60 seconds that should be delivered during CPR

CPR doubles the survival rate of patients who go into cardiac arrest even though only about eight percent of CPR patients are saved by the procedure, even when backup help is called immediately

To learn CPR properly, take an accredited first-aid training course. CPR for adults is different than for children and infants.

The American Heart Association uses the acronym of CAB – compressions, airway, breathing – to help people remember the order to perform the steps of CPR.

1. Compressions: Restore blood circulation 

• Make sure the person is on their back on a firm surface
• Kneel next to the person’s neck and shoulders
• Place the heel of one hand over the center of the person’s chest, between the nipples and place your other hand on top of the first hand
• Keep your elbows straight and position your shoulders directly above your hands
• Use your upper body weight to push straight down on (compress) the chest between two and 2.4 inches
• Push hard at a rate of 100 to 120 compressions a minute
• If you haven’t been trained in CPR, continue chest compressions until there are signs of movement or until emergency medical personnel take over. If you have been trained in CPR, go on to checking the airway and rescue breathing.

2. Airway: Clear the airway

• If you’re trained in CPR and you’ve performed 30 chest compressions, open the person’s airway using the head-tilt, chin-lift maneuver
• Put your palm on the person’s forehead and gently tilt the head back.
• Then with the other hand, gently lift the chin forward to open the airway
• Check for normal breathing, taking no more than five or 10 seconds. Look for chest motion, listen for normal breath sounds, and feel for the person’s breath on your cheek and ear
• If the person isn’t breathing normally and you are trained in CPR, begin mouth-to-mouth breathing

3. Breathing: Breathe for the person 

• With the airway open (using the head-tilt, chin-lift maneuver), pinch the nostrils shut for mouth-to-mouth breathing and cover the person’s mouth with yours, making a seal.
• Give one breath for one second and, if the chest doesn’t rise, do a second breath
• Thirty chest compressions followed by two rescue breaths is considered one cycle
• Continue CPR until there are signs of movement or emergency medical personnel take over.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4343902/The-playlist-save-life-best-songs-CPR.html#ixzz4dAVeRLMi
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CPR training is an important aspect in the community. We need to address it by getting people trained as best as we can. Please get trained in a CPR course today so that you know how to save a life.

SEATTLE – Some are saying it’s a miracle she was there when it happened. A Seattle police officer, who was off the clock at a birthday party, rescued a woman this weekend after she stopped breathing.

That officer is sharing her story, in hopes more people will get CPR-certified.

“It seemed like I was doing it for hours and hours,” said Detective Cookie Bouldin with the Seattle Police Department.

You could say the detective was at the right place at the right time.

“This was my very first time performing CPR on a human,” Det. Cookie said.

Right away, she told Q13 her instincts kicked in..

“I checked to see if she had a pulse and I could not get a pulse,” said Det. Cookie.

And in the end, she said she believe her training helped save a woman’s life.

“It just happened that this woman was enjoying herself at a social birthday party event where everyone was having a good time, and then all of a sudden she just lost consciousness,” said Det. Bouldin.

Last Friday the detective said she was at a party in Tukwila a woman in her 50’s was sitting in front of her and stopped breathing.

So she quickly performed CPR on her, but she told us it wasn’t easy.

“My arms were getting extremely tired,” said Det. Cookie. “They were feeling like spaghetti, but I had to keep going. Even though I wasn’t seeing any improvement in the lady, I knew I had to keep going.”

As of right now, the woman is recovering in the hospital.

That’s why the detective is now pushing for more people to get CPR-certified.

“It’s just a matter of knowing how to put your hands, where to put your hands because you have to push down quite hard.”

According to the American heart association, almost 90 percent of people who have a cardiac arrest out of the hospital, die.

Health experts said CPR, especially if performed in the first few minutes, can double or triple someone’s chance of survival.

“Anybody could do it, whether you’re young or you’re old. You could still do this.”

She also said it’s never too late to sign up for classes, and hopes more people will get involved.

“You just need to the proper training, and the proper training is not hard to get.”

We are lucky here in Australia and Canberra that this is not anywhere near as commonly occurring as it is in the UK. Still some great skills for first aid management of bleeding situations. Apply pressure and do not remove the impaled object. Have  great weekend first aiders. We look forward to seeing you in a first aid course with us soon.

First aid skills should be taught in schools to counter the rise in knife crime among young people, a leading London trauma surgeon has said.

Duncan Bew, a consultant at King’s College Hospital, said he has seen increasingly ferocious stabbing injuries inflicted on children.

In 2016, 299 children were caught carrying knives in schools, up from 152 in 2011, according to the Met Police.

The first-aid skills would mean fewer deaths from stab injuries, Mr Bew said.

• Children under 13 ‘able to buy knives’ in London
• Knife crime offences ‘highest since 2011’
• Why are more youths carrying knives?

The number of pupils caught in possession of knives in schools has risen for a fifth successive year, according to Met Police statistics.

“There’s a need to raise public preparedness,” Mr Bew said.

The surgeon co-founded Growing Against Violence which provides training in schools for 10-15 year olds to reduce gang membership and tackle violence, including equipping them with first aid techniques.

“We see more stabbing victims around the end of school than any other time,” Mr Bew said.

“Gone are the days of children coming in having fallen off their bikes, now it’s all because of knives.”

The family of murdered teenager Quamari Barnes told BBC London that for some children carrying a knife came as naturally as picking up “their keys or mobile phone”.

‘Wanted to look cool’

Justin (not his real name), was 12 years old when his mother found a hunting knife in his bag as he left for school.

“All the bigger boys in my class bully me and make me feel scared, they threaten me,” he told the BBC.

“I wanted to carry a knife to look cool.”

His mother said she “wasn’t angry at all; I’m just really concerned.”

“I live on an estate and I see bad things all the time. The situation will get worse because young people are competing against each other,” she added.

First aid is taught in some schools as part of the personal, social, health and economics education (PSHE) curriculum – but it is not compulsory.

In March, the government announced PSHE would be made compulsory in all state schools, but there is no timetable for its introduction.

The government is currently consulting on what to include in the permanent curriculum.

First responder skills

• Protect yourself and any casualties from danger
• Comfort and reassure casualties
• Assess the injury
• Put pressure on the wound to slow down the flow of blood
• Call emergency services

Spanish actor Antonio Banderas has opened up about the heart attack he suffered two months ago after 37 years as a ‘workaholic’, but says he is now well and believes the best of his career is yet to come.

Banderas was in his native Spanish city of Malaga on Saturday to receive a lifetime career award at the Malaga Spanish Film Festival, and told reporters that when he reflects on his beginnings and closes his eyes, all that has happened during his career seems ‘like a dream’.

During the press conference Banderas was quizzed on his health.

‘I had a heart attack on Jan 28, but I was very lucky, it was benign and caused no damage,’ he said.

‘I underwent an operation where they implanted three stents in my coronary arteries, and since I had suffered from arrhythmia for quite some time, I underwent thermoablation, but it wasn’t as dramatic as they say.’

He blamed the attack on the ‘real beating’ he’d given his heart over 37 years spent being a workaholic but said he now feels very well and is keen to get back to work.

In the 1970s Banderas debuted as an actor at Malaga’s Romano Theater: ‘I came dressed as a Roman on a Vespino motorbike,’ he remembered.

In the early 1990s he ventured to the US with The Mambo Kings and recalled staying at a New York hotel, and not being able to speak English wasn’t able to call for room service.

‘Under the hotel there was a corner store where somebody called Rodriguez worked. I looked for him, ordered some mortadella and ate a sandwich,’ he said.

Banderas said he owes ‘so much’ to Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, despite him being a tough director who is complicated to work with some shoots turning into ‘a kind of creative hell.’

But Banderas believes the best of his career is yet to come and wants to start directing again, something he says he enjoyed doing in two of his films, despite perhaps being ‘a little too green’ at the time

He is also waiting to play fellow Malaga native Pablo Picasso in a Carlos Saura film showing the creative process of the famous painting ‘Guernica’, which was Picasso’s response to the bombing of a northern Spanish village of that name by Nazi German and Fascist Italian warplanes before World War II.

– See more at: http://www.skynews.com.au/culture/showbiz/celebrity/2017/03/26/banderas-opens-up-about-heart-attack.html#sthash.2FSj730n.dpuf

In an emergency situation, the first few minutes are crucial in saving a child’s life. In those few moments, when for example you’re driving the child to the hospital, you could do something yourself to help save their life.

If a nanny is looking after a child and realises that the child is choking, she might take a minute to make a phone call to the child’s mother, then another to call to an ambulance, or perhaps another to get to a car or a taxi.

I don’t think most parents or nannies are equipped with the skills they need to deal with emergency situations. Many nannies in the UAE are more like babysitters, but that doesn’t mean that they’re certified to handle emergency situations.

That’s why I decided to organise a paediatric first-aid course through my initiative, The Mama Bear Club, in Abu ­Dhabi. The idea came about when I saw a few videos on social media about how to save your child in a choking situation.

It struck me that although it’s easy to watch the manoeuvres in a video, to do them in real life is a different story. During the four-hour paediatric first-aid course, there’s theoretical and practical training, and mannequins are available for people to practise on.

I have noticed that there are more and more first-aid courses being taught in the UAE, especially at child-focused centres and playhouses, which means people are starting to realise the importance of learning first aid. Most of these courses focus on CPR, whereas a full first-aid course, like we are organising, ­covers situations such as drowning, seizures, eye or head injuries, fractures, poisoning, choking, insect bites, electric shock, burns, CPR and more.

Let’s assume that you’re a working mum who isn’t with the child when an emergency happens. That’s why the course is offered to fathers and nannies, not just mothers. It will also be offered in a variety of languages, including English, Arabic and Tagalog.

Thankfully, I have not yet had to face any life-threatening situations with my own 3-year-old daughter. There was a small incident in which she had an insect bite, but it wasn’t severe. You can imagine, when you see a lump on your child’s skin, you immediately panic. Even getting the right ointment for an insect bite can be tricky – how do you know which one to choose? And what are the emergency numbers? Do parents and nannies know? Are they written down somewhere in the house where they can be easily read?

As I learn first-aid skills, I also want to be able to pass them on to other parents. Once I have been certified, I can teach the basic techniques to my friends and family who also have children. It’s about spreading knowledge and raising awareness for other families.

I’m sure that a paediatric first-aid course will give parents the peace of mind to know that in the event of an emergency situation in the future, they would be equipped with the right skills to deal with it.

* As told to Jessica Hill

Hamda Al Hadrami is the founder of The Mama Bear Club, a community initiative to connect and build a network of mothers in Abu Dhabi. The paediatric first-aid course, from Health and Safety Solutions, and a healthy cooking session by Mama Lu Kitchen will be held on Saturday, April 8, at Rosewood Abu Dhabi hotel from 11am to 3pm. Guests can register for either of the sessions on the day or via www.eventbrite.com