From Witness to a Certified HSE Officer.

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When I was a child, my siblings and I were playing tag. As we ran, screaming at the top of our voices in excitement, my uncle, who was babysitting us, felt irritated and warned us to stop, as he was trying to get some sleep.

We didn't listen, as we were too caught up in the moment. In fact, the more he warned, the louder we became, so much so that he was forced to start chasing us with a whip.

We all ran to the back of the house, where there were piles of rusted zinc carelessly stacked against each other. My siblings and I ran by it and as my uncle tried to reach out to grab one of us, his fingers got caught up in the edge of the piled rusted zinc, and before we knew it, all four of his fingers were slit, and blood gushed out uncontrollably.

It was indeed a horrific scene as we ran helter-skelter screaming for help. I can never forget that experience, as every first aid applied by our neighbors failed. I was really scared at the time, as I thought my uncle would fall down and die, but luckily he didn't.

Seeing how deep his cut was, he was rushed to the hospital by our neighbors where his wounds were stitched. After the incident, my uncle's fingers did heal, but he lost all forms of sensitivity in four of them.

You know, my uncle losing sensitive in his fingers was another surprising situation for me, especially seeing how they were always erect because he could not cup them.

It should be worth noting that growing older, the experience with my uncle led me to read a lot about the human body. I became so knowledgeable of human health that people actually thought that I was medical personnel.

To further cement my knowledge on health and safety, I took some HSE courses during my service year, and thanks to my friend who advised me on acquiring the certificate, I became a certified safety officer.

Currently, I can perform CPR, dress a wound, and even manage bleeding. Although I haven't had the opportunity to physically experiment with all that I have been taught during the HSE lecture, but on one occasion, I have assisted my heavily pregnant cousin come out from force labour.

What actually happened that day was that she was trying to balance company's financial record and saw that there was a huge shortage. This triggered her emotions badly and before I knew it she was already screaming in pain and complaining about pains in her lower body.

While we called the driver to come take her to the hospital, the pain got worse and I knew that I needed to do something so I taught her some breathing exercise, while I rubbed my hands on her back.

My voice was as soothing as it gets and this assisted her through the entire process. It was not until she came back from the hospital that she filled me in how the doctor informed her that what she experienced was false labour but she got lucky as she stopped contrasting before getting to the hospital.

Looking at the upside of my experiences, it's exciting to know that we are in an era of technology where all information is readily available on the internet, and given all that I have learned, I'm sure that if a real-life situation presents itself, I can handle it while having all the needed assistance from memories which stems from constant research and reading.