Simi Valley Emergency Preparedness - Lesson Learned

As a young boy I was a boy scout and trained in First Aid.  When Cathy and I were the owners of the Simi Valley Gold's Gym in the Target Center, we had CPR certification and basic first aid training.  Well, years later you get rusty.  

This past Sunday we were preparing for a large family party at my Simi Valley home to celebrate my oldest daughter's high school graduation.  About an hour before the party I heard my wife screaming to call 911.  She had gone over to my neighbor house and about the same time she was walking in their back yard, my neighbor making repairs to his patio cover fell off on to the bricks hitting his head.  He was knocked out cold, bleeding and not moving.  The wait for the fire department, paramedics and police seemed like and eternity.  I soon realized how little first aid skills I remembered. A few other neighbors heard the yelling and came to help us.  I went into the house looking for a cell phone or regular phone to see if I could call my neighbor's family and there was no cell phone or pone with a programmed address book, nor was there an emergency list of numbers anywhere in the house.  When the police arrived, they helped locate a phone book that was not well organized and they went though the book trying to hunt down contact information for his adult children and a possible cell phone for his wife.  

My neighbor was very lucky, by the time the paramedics arrived he was talking and moving his arms and legs.  He broke a couple of ribs and hurt his shoulder along with a concussion, but is already home from the hospital.  

I learned that I need an emergency list of important contacts and family members on the refrigerator; also that I need to go get my first aid training and CPR certification updated.  I feel fortunate that I live on a street where we are all not total strangers, but we all walked away from that day thinking about how we could improve our own Emergency Preparedness.