I am Pakathan speaking. I thank ALERT organisation and team ALERT for giving me opportunity to learn first aid. There was a circumstance recently where I applied what I was taught in the training programme. When having non-vegetarian curry food in the afternoon, my father choked on the food that got stuck in the airway and had difficulty breathing.

Once, 23-year-old youngster Dhanush tried and couldn’t save the life of a victim. After some time, he once again witnesses a road accident and this time, saves the life of a 60-year-old man by performing First Aid during the Golden Hour of life and death.

26-year-old Lalitha Veronica saved the life of a person who suffered a heart attack by performing three cycles of CPR. When many people avoided the unconscious victim, she was reminded of her father who had also experienced a heart attack and thereby, she stopped to give first aid without inhibition.

The first accident case, I attended, was a girl who had fainted and had gone unconscious. After I got near the victim in college, I checked for her response. When she didn’t respond to me, I proceeded to check her vitals. The vitals were normal so I put her in the Recovery Position. About 20 minutes later, she regained consciousness, felt normal and spoke with me.