I need to say thank you

Téo has fallen into water a few times. The last time really freaked me out: when I saw him under the water I realised with a horrible shock that I wasn't sure I could have resuscitated him if it had been necessary.*

So yesterday I did a first aid course for parents. And it was good, and I feel a bit more confident now. But that is not where I'm going here.

The doctor giving the course mentioned that giving mouth-to-mouth is exhausting. He was young and fit, and said he'd once done it for 14 minutes until the ambulance arrived - and it was one of the hardest physical things he's ever done.

Then he mentioned that a successful heart massage will most likely result in broken ribs and major tissue damage - that's how hard you have to push on the person's chest.

Then he mentioned that giving someone mouth-to-mouth is not easy from a psychological point of view: it's a very intimate thing to do, plus there could be blood and/or vomit, and it's not like it's ever going to be a calm situation. A friend of his gave mouth-to-mouth to a guy injured in a car accident, who didn't survive. The doctor's friend was severely traumatised by the experience, and could not eat meat afterwards because it tasted like the dead guy's blood in his mouth.

And at that moment, I was hit by what an incredible effort was made to try and revive my dad. I don't remember the full details, but there were some nurses on the trip, and they tried to revive him for something like 40 minutes before they gave up. I assume that means they gave him heart massage and mouth-to-mouth for 40 minutes.

When I first heard this, not long after he had died, my reaction was like, wow, that's a long time, I'm pretty sure I would have given up before then.

But sitting in the room yesterday, for the first time I thought about what it must have been like for those people. How much physical effort they put in, as well as psychological effort, for someone they had only known for a few days. The realisation was humbling, to say the least.

So I'm going to try and find their names and addresses, and then I will write to say thank you. And that I'm sorry it's taken me 4 years to do so.

* Just to reassure you: we were right by Téo when he slipped through his swim ring, so although we didn't actually see him go under, he wasn't in real danger of drowning. But even so, it was still very frightening to see him struggling just under the surface. And also to realise that it can happen so quickly, and so silently, even when you are right there. He will be having swimming lessons this summer.