For the second time in about a week - first during the Derecho in the DC region , and yesterday in Calgary - a major city has lost it's 911 service.

It's a good reminder that we shouldn't expect the calvary to always arrive and save the day, even when we're surrounded by all the amenitites of urban life.

Good point jac. One should always be as prepared as possible to take care of their own when needed. Even in a widespread disaster type situation, where emergency services are overloaded, you may need to fend for yourself until help can arrive.

A situation like this is another good reason to get yourself and your family first aid and cpr certified. More than just a delay in recieving medical care, there might not be anyone on the other end of the phone to walk you through emergency medical care until the EMTs arrive.

Step #1 in preparing for a 911 outage is to have hard-copies of the non-911 actual phone numbers of the emergency services you might need: especially police, fire, ambulance.

And go ahead and put these emergency numbers in your cell phone - for reference even if there is no cell service.

911 could crash without a disaster event precipitating it.

For the sake of neighbors, it would be good to have multiple copes of the various emergency numbers.

And, of course, always have sufficient fuel in your tank to drive your own vehicle to a hospital if need be.

Does your area have a 411 information number? 411 should also be able to direct a phone call to local police, fire, etc. but not as quickly as 911.

I do not disagree with First Aid.

CPR, however, is another story. The odds of survival of a cardiac arrest in the absence of quick access to a defibrillator is close to nil.

Even with the presence of a defibrillator, the survival rate of a cardiac arrest is not high. In a hospital with access to a code team, it is an unusual thing for a cardiac arrest to result in a patient who eventually WALKS out of the hospital.

Admittedly, the average hospitalized patient is much sicker than someone otherwise healthy suffering from a cardiac arrest due to a lightning strike.

Respiratory arrest OTOH is likely survivable.

Conway Yee

We were taught that CPR could bring a kid back, but unless you can get help quickly adult CPR wasn't likely to work.

On the other hand a retired sheriff's deputy I know saved two adults with CPR.

Just to add to this, I think this is a good example of why a Wilderness first aid course is better to take than a regular Red Cross or St. John's course. Wilderness first aid is taught with the underlying assumption that an ambulance is hours, or even days, away.


I think this is along the same lines, but the instructor of the wilderness first aid I took said that CPR can often be more effective in the wild than in the city. The basic premise was that in the wild you are less likely to be performing CPR on someone in poor health with a weak heart, but rather it is more likely you would be performing it on an otherwise healthy and active individual who suffered some sort of trauma (e.g., lightning, a fall, etc). In other words, you are more likely to run into someone in distress who had an otherwise healthy heart and therefore they were more likely to be revived.

Don't get your hopes up. The success rate is typically around 30%, even in the best of circumstances. I personally am 0 for 2 in outdoors settings.

Training in First Aid is highly desirable, even if 911 is functioning fully.

You are absolutely correct. My post was a bit misleading; better odds do not necessarily mean good odds.

I also recall we had a good conversation about when CPR should cease and some of the personal and emotional aspects around that.

That is one of MANY reasons why we are trying to get more members of our Scouting District Wilderness First Aid training. It is offered within our council, but rarely near us. We are at the extreme outskirts of our council and can't get anyone to come here for the training til we get at least 25 people willing to take it. Of course I am on the list, first aid training is one of my MANY preparedness shortfalls I am working on.