Two CPR instructors, Andrew Sekhavati and Ashkon Pour-Heidary offered a free workshop at Mel Lastman Square. The two are motivated by an incident in the area of van rampage or vehicle ramming attack that happened a year ago in Toronto.

Timely intervention with CPR

In the moments after the attack, other people started providing CPR compressions and one person offered a belt as a tourniquet. According to the two instructors that incident was a reminder that not everyone knows how to provide CPR or has training and knows how to help. Sometimes in this situation, bystander effect can happen. A bystander effect occurs when a person is not capable of providing aid to a person when there are other people in the area. You can never tell when these things are going to happen.

Edmonton first aid — According to the two instructors that incident was a reminder that not everyone knows how to provide CPR or has training and knows how to help.

Andrew Sekhavati and Ashkon Pour-Heidary are hoping that these workshop breaks through the bystander effect, which is one of the biggest barrier in an emergency situations. Some people are just watching that an incident is happening and do not take any action. These people do not know if who will call an emergency number or not or other person will call and at the end no one calls the emergency numbers.

The workshop will have several station, all equipped with CPR dummies. Some people became interested in the workshop after the rampage.

Some people who provide CPR and first aid to other people are protected by the Good Samaritan Laws, but sometimes they can still be hesitant in providing help especially they are not properly trained or have not performed it for a long time. Mass attack is rare, but training in these life saving measures is very useful.

According to the Canadian humanitarian charitable organization first aid representative, an incident such as the van attack brings first-aid and emergency training to top of mind and a reminder that often you will be performing first-aid and CPR on a loved one. Every person responds differently to accidents and emergency situations. With these training a person builds confidence and can respond efficiently. Furthermore she recommends training of first aid and CPR from kids to grandparents.

Some friends of the two instructors who were injured in the attacked are still recovering in the hospital.

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