Taiwan Church News 3873 Edition 18 ~ 24 May, 2026 Weekly Topical Offering First-Aid Rescue amid Emergency, PCT Kaohsiung Presbytery Trains Certified Responders for Years Reported by Lin Wan-ting from Kaohsiung In recent years, Taiwan society has experienced kinds of natural disasters, like typhoons, earthquakes and other emergency events with devastating impacts. In order to improve the capability of emergency response within church communities, the Church and Society Committee of Kaohsiung Presbytery had established a five-year project long before. And this year the project enters into its fourth anniversary. In addition to carry on cooperating with Kaohsiung Red Cross to open training camp for “primary first-aid rescue”, another training camp for “advanced first-aid rescue” has also been added this year. On May 16, the training camp of the primary first-aid rescue was held at Der-Her Church to instruct civilians how to proceed some basic first-aid techniques, including Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), Automatic External Defibrillator (AED), Hiemlich manoeuvre, trauma treatment and triangle bandage wrapping, and etc. Rev Chiu Jing-mei, director of Church and Society Committee of Kaohsiung Presbytery, prayed at the opening ceremony of the first-aid rescue training course. She also announced that a certification training course of “advanced first-aid rescue” would be opened later in September. Elder Su Yih-en, member of Church and Society Committee of Kaohsiung Presbytery, stressed the importance of “keep training” in first-aid response and pointed out that even if a first-aid responder has been certified, he still need to practice his tacit techniques through continuous drills. “Facing the emergencies, frequent practices will make first-aid responder steady and strong to help more people relieved from their injuries and pains,” he said. The first-aid training course was mainly instructed by Ms Guan Shu-chian, who had graduated from Kaohsiung Medical University and worked as a nurse in hospitals and colleges. Ms Guan pointed out that the purpose of first-aid is to save lives, avoid injuries, stop the injured to get worse, and avoid extra injuries caused by improper body move. “Before doing first-aid rescue, the site safety should be assured, and then the patient’s condition should be checked and reviewed to decide the order of first-aid procedures,” she said. In terms of triage classification, Ms Guan mentioned that the injured patient with difficulty to breath or no breath, cardiac arrest and severe bleeding should be given the top priority first-aid rescue. But, if the patient experienced an obvious fatal injury or almost close to death, its need of first-aid rescue could be ranked as less urgent. In addition to practical first-aid service, she reminded, psychological support should also be offered in time to reduce the anxiety and suffering of the patients. In the first-aid rescue course, Ms Guan explained in details how to do an exact resuscitation with correct body postures, proper ways to do CPR and AED. She also arranged drills for the participants to practice. With the reminder-tip of “press it hard, press it fast, chest bounce back, do not stop”, she stressed that the pressing depth of human chest within CPR must be sufficient: at least five centimeters for adults, about five centimeters for children, and about four centimeters for infants; the pressing frequency is about 100 to 120 times per minute. She suggested people can make the pressing frequency regular in rhythm by counting. As to the operation of AED, she indicated that it is necessary to follow the instructions of AED machine. “Especially, people should not touch the patient during the AED process of ‘analysis, charging and electric shock’”, warned she, “after AED is used, first-aid responder should carry on to do CPR till the patient come back.” Ms Guan also remarked, “if the first-aid techniques are not practiced frequently, they are very easy to become rusty.” Therefore, the hospital she used to serve will always arrange the nursing medics to take CPR course annually to certify if they are capable to offer first-aid rescue under the emergency. Amid the first two years of the first-aid rescue training project, a five-year plan drafted by Church and Society Committee of the Kaohsiung Presbytery, courses of simple knots, climbing, descending, crossing and zip-wiring via ropes were designed. It is hoped that these training course will help PCT church members to have a basic training in first-aid rescue, cooperate with professional guidance under emergency and facilitate the life-saving search amid rescue and evacuation procedures. In the third year of this first-aid rescue project, as the certification course of “primary first-aid rescue” was added, it is estimated that 100 church members have passed the first-aid rescue training courses with certificates after three courses held in one year. This year, an certification training course of “advanced first-aid rescue”will be extra included in September. And the highest coach-training of first-aid rescue is expected to be set up in 2027 to encourage more church members to take up this life-saving mission. Translated by Peter Wolfe |