American Red Cross cameo on The Office!

I must admit that I only watch a few TV shows, but one of the ones I do watch faithfully is The Office. I was looking forward to an extra-long episode after the Super Bowl, and wasn’t disappointed. It was ridiculously funny, and the American Red Cross made a cameo!I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t watched the episode and may want to be surprised, but the employees attend a CPR demonstration.

I recently became a First Aid/CPR/AED instructor, so it was very interesting for me to note the differences between what was shown on the show and the way courses are conducted by the Red Cross. First of all, there was only one dummy (often referred to as a “manikin,” intentionally spelled phonetically) for a class of about ten people. We use a DVD to teach CPR skills, instead of launching right into practice as the instructor on the show did. She also didn’t correct Michael (played by Steve Carell) even though his hand placement would do much more harm than good. Instead of acting as the heart muscle, he would choke the victim.So does Steve Carell just need to take a CPR class? Not necessarily. I wouldn’t put it past him to intentionally have Michael Scott not know a darn thing about CPR. Michael isn’t the brightest bulb. I don’t think the show needed to portray exactly what an American Red Cross class is like, either. If it did, this couldn’t happen:

I’m 99.9% sure that no one has pulled a knife on our mannequins in any of the classes at the chapter, which makes me feel safer! In case you saw the show and were wondering, yes, the heads underneath the faces do indeed look like this:

If you’re interested in learning more about CPR training, First Aid training, and/or AED training, feel free to call the bookstore at 801-323-7014. We’re happy to help.

Images taken from NBC.com.