THE FIRST 10 MINUTES, WHERE LIVES ARE SAVED OR LOST

Mike Myers, Security & Emergency Services Advisor, CEO Mobi Ventures

When a medical emergency happens, most people immediately think call for help. And they should.

But here’s the uncomfortable reality, by the time professional help arrives, the outcome has often already been decided. We’ve all heard of the Golden Hour, the critical window after a serious injury where medical treatment dramatically improves survival chances.

But as important, especially in South Africa, there’s another window that matters just as much, it comes before the Golden Hour.

The first 10 minutes

Those first few minutes after an incident, where everything either goes right… or very wrong. It’s the moment someone collapses, a colleague has a heart attack, a child chokes, a serious injury occurs.

And in that moment, there is no ambulance on scene yet, no paramedic, no professional intervention. Just regular people like you and me. What happens next depends entirely on the people who are there.

Do they recognise what’s happening?

Do they know what to do?

Or do they hesitate, panic, or assume someone else will step in?

That’s often what happens, people freeze, they second-guess themselves, and they worry about doing the wrong thing. And while that hesitation is human, it comes at a cost and that cost could be a life. From a medical response perspective, those first 10 minutes are critical.

In cases like cardiac arrest, every minute without cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) reduces survival chances significantly. In severe bleeding, uncontrolled blood loss can become fatal within minutes. In airway obstructions, time is measured in seconds, not minutes.

This isn’t about dramatic scenarios; it’s an everyday reality. And yet, most environments, homes, offices, public spaces, they aren’t prepared for it. We put a lot of faith in emergency services, and rightly so. There are highly trained professionals out there doing exceptional work, but they are not standing next to us when an incident happens. They are on the way, but sometimes lights and sirens don’t allow enough time for the patient.

So the real question is, what happens while you’re waiting? This is where preparation and training changes everything. Not complicated systems, not expensive equipment.

Simple, practical capability:

■ Someone who knows how to perform CPR

■ Someone who can control bleeding

■ Someone who can recognise the severity of a situation

■ Someone who takes control and acts

Because in those first few minutes, doing something is almost always better than doing nothing. This applies just as much in the workplace as it does at home.

Businesses invest heavily in compliance, extinguishers on the wall, first aid kits in cupboards, policies in files. But when something actually happens, it comes down to people.

ARE THEY TRAINED?

ARE THEY CONFIDENT?

ARE THEY READY TO ACT?

Because equipment doesn’t save lives, people do! The time between an incident occurring and professional help arriving is where risk lies, but also where lives can be saved.

We need to shift how we think about emergencies, it’s not just about how quickly help arrives, it’s about what happens before it gets there, what we can do before help arrives. Because the reality is simple, the first 10 minutes don’t wait for anyone.

As a practical step, more organisations are starting to prioritise basic life-saving first aid training for their teams, not as a compliance exercise, but as a real capability.

At Mobi Ventures, we facilitate first aid training for our clients at corporate rates in partnership with ER24, helping businesses equip their teams with the skills to respond when it matters most. We live in a world where help is never too far away.

But in an emergency, the person who makes the biggest difference is usually the one who is already there.

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T: +27 (0)31 109 1888

E: care@mobiventures.co.za

W: www.mobiventures.co.za

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