Palaceside Building recently held an Advanced Life Saving course. With the goal of at least one certified person per tenant for immediate response to illness or injury, we invited office and shop tenants—and 32 people took part including related companies.
In B1 Mainichi Hall, four instructors from Kojimachi Fire Station and the Tokyo Disaster Prevention and Emergency Association led nine-to-five training with lunch—eight intensive hours in an air-conditioned hall, yet plenty of sweat. Feedback included "practical and clear," "easy to join in the building," "more confidence using an AED," and "please continue courses here."
Life saving courses are public certifications supervised by fire bureaus. There is a half-day Basic course and a full-day Advanced course. In Advanced we learned CPR for adults, children, infants and newborns (photo above) and first aid (burn treatment, splinting, triangular bandages (photo below)), foreign-body removal and transport. We also trained on AEDs (photo left).
Chest compression is central: to revive stopped heart and lungs, place the heel of the hand on the center of the chest
, overlap hands and compress at least 5 cm. Elbows straight, 100 times per minute.
Finding someone collapsed: ① check surroundings ② consciousness ③ ask nearby people for help ④ call 119 and fetch an AED ⑤ check breathing ⑥ open airway and compress—continuing until EMS arrives, switching every 1–2 minutes if helpers are present. Compressing 5 cm at 100/min takes real strength. In practice: thirty compressions
, two breaths, five sets—you end soaked. Instructors kindly say during lecture "please don't overdo it," but in drills: "harder," "faster," "slower," "wrong spot." Pairs and trios practiced roles, AED timing and compression switches—we learned a lot and sore unused arm muscles for a day or two.
Everyone completed the full program and passed. The fire chief issued Life Saving Skill Certificates
to all.
Thanks to participants from JMR Research Institute, Starbucks Coffee, Sapporo Lion, Aqua Blue R&R, Dementia Prevention Foundation, Totoharudo, Aso Barber, Mainichi Education, Tokyo General Management, Mainichi Agency, NTT Data, FamilyMart, Mainichi Eiga-sha, Marubeni Utility Service, Daiso Tokyo, Mainichi Tokyo Center, Seibi and others—well done.