St John Ambulance

It was 2 o'clock in the afternoon, I was in the laboratory at Monash University Dept of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology during my Honours year. The phone rings, and by chance I am the first to answer it (communal phone used by around 9 people). It was my girlfriend, in the offices of the Biomedical Society three floors below me.

She sounds scared, and after a few seconds I work out what's happening - a friend of ours is in the office with her having a seizure. He's diabetic and is known to sometimes lapse in his management, and she's not too sure what to do. She calls the University Clinic and gets a doctor on the way, while I head downstairs to see if he's ok before I run to the pharmacy to get some jelly beans.

Luckily, by the time I got back the seizure had ceased and the doctor had arrived, but it gave everyone there a bit of a shake up. It was the second time in a short period of time my girlfriend had seen a friend go into seizure, and she decided it was time to learn something about how to help.

St John Ambulance offers free Senior First Aid courses to those who volunteer 60 hours service at major public events, so Monday night the next week my girlfriend and I meander into the meeting place for St John Monash University Division and take a pen, sign up sheets and lastly a seat.