Under Pressure

September 9, 2018 2:02 AM

Don’t panic! Meet the experts with a steady hand when catastrophe strikes
posted by fearfulsymmetry (4 comments total)

Pilots generally have this trained into them. Witness Al Haynes, who saved half of the passengers in what should have absolutely been a 100% fatal accident. His talk on it, and a transcript. (I saw him give this talk in person at a safety seminar in Chicago. It stuck with me)
posted by pjern at 6:04 AM on September 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

I work in emergency medicine. I deal with small-scale emergencies. I'm trained how to respond to a mass casualty incident but I can't even begin to fathom what it's like to organize a response to something like the 2007 London bombings or an earthquake that levels half a country. There's some good wisdom in those interviews.
posted by not_the_water at 2:34 PM on September 9, 2018

Practice is the key so you don't have to think.

Seven years after completing EMT training (and not working as an EMT) practice is what helped me to not panic when my neighbor handed me a not-breathing baby.

Being trained/practiced helped me save that baby's life.
posted by ITravelMontana at 3:01 PM on September 9, 2018 [9 favorites]

Practice is the key so you don't have to think.

A line from the book Deep Survival that's stuck with me is "In an emergency, you don't rise to the occasion, you descend to your level of training."
posted by Lexica at 12:36 PM on September 10, 2018 [4 favorites]