Palaceside Building held this year’s advanced first-aid course for tenants on the 26th in Mainichi Hall on the first basement. The goal, pursued in earnest since last year, is to place at least one person with the advanced certificate in each workplace so that illness or injury can be met at once. On this day, office and shop staff plus members of related companies—32 people from 20 firms—took the course.
Four instructors from Kojimachi Fire Station and the Tokyo Disaster Prevention and Emergency Association came on site. From 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., eight hours with a lunch break, the session was dense and hard. After listening to the instructors (photos at left and below), participants moved to practice: repeated chest compressions and rescue breaths were real physical work, and even in the air-conditioned hall everyone was soaked (photo above).
First-aid courses are a public qualification taught and certified by municipal fire departments or the Tokyo Fire Department. There is a half-day ordinary course and a full-day advanced course; the building offers the advanced one. A major feature is that students learn resuscitation not only for adults but also for children, infants and newborns.
Adult CPR uses chest compressions: the heel of the hand on the center of the chest, both hands stacked, body weight applied so the chest sinks about five centimeters with the ribs. That would crush a small child, so for “children” under 16 the lower half of the sternum is pressed with one palm, and for “infants” under one year the slightly lower center of the chest is pressed with two fingers.
Participants also learned AED operation, first aid (burns, fracture immobilization, triangular bandages and the like), foreign-body removal and carrying methods.
Everyone completed the course and passed. Certificates of first-aid skill certified by the fire chief were issued.
Thanks to E&E Holdings, NTT Data i, Kuriharant, Japon, Starbucks Coffee, Seven-Eleven, Tearoom Hana, Doutor Coffee Shop, Palaceside Megane, Horikaze, Fujio Food System (Kappougi), Pronto, Maiei, Marutake, Lampit, Hakuyo Kogyo, Mainichi Shimbun Tokyo Center, Aing, Globeship and Seibi. Well done.