Emergency First Aid

[LeeGray]

Really useful info that, thanks for taking the time to post.

[AHPP]

Good thread.

[Billhook]

Yes Thank you for that from me also.

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

I too thanked previous posters, and in particular Big Jim.

 

Coincidentally, and whilst on the subject of (Emergency) First Aid, I did a renewal only yesterday and, being the 2nd 'industry specific' one I've now done, was reminded of the usefulness of tourniquets for stemming 'arterial' bleeds, i.e. bright red blood spurting out, where you can place them above the wound, e.g. upper arm / upper leg. The issue of "building up of toxins" was discussed and whether you should release the tourniquet periodically to avoid / control such BUT, of course, that would result in further blood loss and interfere with any clotting that may have started to occur, and the trainer was firmly of the opinion to leave it on there and let the emergency services / hospital / doctors deal with that...hopefully after you've saved their life by stopping them bleeding to d**th  

 

She also covered improvised tourniquets, which was pretty simple and obvious after seeing them, but not sure I would have though to do so beforehand

 

Lastly, I know I'm an office 'softie' these days but we did CPR / chest compressions on the dummies for 2mins...FLIP, I'm rejoining the gym this weekend, how hard was that!   

 

All-in-all an excellent day, as indeed was the previous one I did, so please, please try to access a course which specifically covers this stuff.

 

Cheers fer now..

Paul 

[Big Jim]

That's OK, so long as I can get some advice when my saws are acting up in return ?. Still need to give my 044 a good thrashing to bed the new meteor piston in I installed a few days back and see how it goes, then get it retuned and compression tested.

As regards tourniquets  - Id agree, leave them on and let the ambulance/helimed or hospital staff decide when to release them. Hopefully you shouldn't wait too long for an amputation or serious haemorrhage  for a medical resource to arrive on scene.  Remember to emphasise if your location is remote so hopefully helimed will be dispatched.  They may even send a Doctor who responds in their own vehicle to assist, and many MR teams have Doctors/Paras on the team, as well as highly trained voluntary medics who will have tourniquets, trauma dressings etc as well as decent pain relief.  Most tourniquets usually have a space on them where you can quickly write the time on that it was applied, if not then just take note of it yourself and remember to tell the medics when they arrive.

Yep, CPR is knackering if youre doing it properly.  Get your weight over the casualty and lock your arms straight.  You will feel ribs 'popping' and maybe even crunching/grinding but don't let that bother you. Its inevitable. 

 

Id definitely agree too Paul that 'industry specific' first aid courses are better, especially in arb type jobs. I used to work for local authority as a ranger and suggested we should have this, but instead we got the same old St Johns First Aid at Work course every 3 years which didn't cover the scenarios we could come up against out in the middle of nowhere, using saws, brushcutters, chippers etc. I also asked for tourniquets and celox dressing in our first aid kits, again we were denied this. Likewise they wouldn't pay for Hep B jabs, despite fact we often worked in area where we found syringes/needles.....  So, its good that you or youre employer is doing the right thing and getting you the appropriate training.  And lets face it, even a Silky can do you some quite serious damage if your attention lapses...….

Stay safe

 

Jim

Edited February 8, 2019 by Big Jim