Charlie

Issues of Urban Preparedness-Urban Survival

Biography

            My life in the Emergency Medical Field started when I moved to Priest Lake, Idaho with my family. Having two small children I needed to know what to do in an emergency since the closest doctor or urgency care center was over 45 minutes away from our home. Several of us locals got together and decided to see if we could get the community behind us to start an ambulance service. It worked and is still going strong with a Volunteer department pretty awesome feeling. My life changed and I moved to Washougal where I considered not doing emergency medical volunteering anymore, however, when I heard the sirens I ended up going to Washougal Fire Department and talking to the chief and some of the paid guys and am now starting my 24th year as a Volunteer Firefighter.

            My credentials for teaching CPR-Cardiac Pulmonary Resuscitation; First Aid techniques, and Blood Borne Pathogens’ started at Priest Lake where I was an instructor for the volunteers also the U.S. Forest Service group with an instructor card from American Red Cross.   The U. S Forest Service changed programs and another instructor and I became Instructor/Trainers for Medic 1st Aid program which I’m still teaching.  

            Throughout the years training has changed many many times mostly for the good of the public lay person. My main focus in teaching is to have that person leave my class feeling confident and sometimes I hear back from them that what I taught them helped them in an important situation. At one of my training classes a young girl came up to me and said Thank you, you taught my mom about choking and it saved my life. AWESOME!