First aid kit number plate

[austinlegro]

What would you do ?

I'd do a desperate search for an app that might help.
Preferably a free one if possible...

[slparry]

Speaking of roadside first aid.
A little conundrum for you.
You're out for a ride one evening in the rural lanes, and you witness a collision involving a motorcyclist who is wearing a full face helmet.
He has stopped breathing.
The ambulance has been called by someone else, but is coming from very far away.
Your casualty has about 10 minutes before oxygen starvation causes death.
What would you do ?

I am sure they used to allow removal of the helmet if the casualty was not breathing to administer CPR. Advice may have changed, but I think they no longer suggest mouth to mouth for CPR, just chest compression so perhaps the helmet is left in place??????

Mouth to mouth is no longer insisted upon, if the person giving CPR doesn't want to do it. What they point out is often after an accident a person will vomit, so clearing the airways is important (so removal of the helmet would still be recommended), they did point out that members of the public will try and stop helmet removal as some have been told never to remove it but they tell you to tell them you've been trained to do it properly, they REALLY make you pull the lid apart to ease it off.

You'd have to have a strong stomach to give mouth to mouth to someone who's just puked. When I did my scuba first aid stuff they said the same as often the unconscious diver will be dribbling snot.

However, I'd like to think I'd clean as much as I could and provide mouth to mouth as well as the chest compression as it does improve their chance to survive.

On the course you're told how to remove the helmet, the most important thing of course is to keep the head/neck stable in case there's spinal damage.

However, as they said on the course saving the life is primarily the main thing. I think they said 80% of deaths at RTA's are due to the victim dying from no longer being able to breath. However, CPR (to the beat of "Nellie the elephant" with a breath at the end of the the chorus) is hard work to maintain, and if you're doing it for 10 or 20 minutes for an ambulance to arrive you're going to need at least two people.

[Nookiebear]

I did this course through MAG and it is well worth it. They teach you the safe way to remove a helmet if the person isn't breathing and other essentials.

[bikesnbones]

Mouth to mouth is no longer insisted upon, if the person giving CPR doesn't want to do it.

The sad reality is that it has been removed from basic first aid training due to there being cases of people administering breaths when the patient was till breathing, causing more harm.
Now, all people are advised to do is chest compressions and nothing else.
The theory is that this will do the least damage and is better than nothing.
The first time I did it was for an elderley neighbour.
Someone had called an ambulance and said they saw her just get in her car a minute earlier and slump forward.
No pulse, or breathing so I had to act quickly.
She had so much fluid in her lungs that her capacity to take in air was extremely, limited and it was bloody hard work getting it in.
As she ex haled the air I'd blown in, her lungs made the most awful gurgling sound,
As I did the chest compressions, she moaned.
She was not alive.
The body does these things, even in death.
Not at all like what you see in films and TV and very un nerving.
I am a firm believer though, that life saving techniques should be taught from a very young age, and promoted far more than they are.
When I worked as an ambulance technician, I attended a Mother who's 2 year old had swallowed a piece of orange and choked,
She was just standing there in hysterics and had done nothing.
The operator could not get the Mother to take instructions over the phone because she was so hysterical.
The sad thing about it is that it's a really simple thing to deal with.
I got the piece of orange out in 5 seconds.
The child was revived, but with irreperable brain damage, rendering her totally dependent on others for the rest of her life.
The most basic first aid could have seen the child all OK, and probably just crying and screaming by the time we got there.
Such a shame, that people on the whole just don't bother with it.

[slparry]

as you say so very sad, I can't see why basic first aid can't be part of the driving test and taught in schools as part of a life skills class, heck can't schools spare one hour a week to teach kids basic cookery, finance handling, home maintenance & housekeeping, first aid etc.

[Nookiebear]

as you say so very sad, I can't see why basic first aid can't be part of the driving test and taught in schools as part of a life skills class, heck can't schools spare one hour a week to teach kids basic cookery, finance handling, home maintenance & housekeeping, first aid etc.

Now come on, that would be far to easy.

[bikesnbones]

I can't see why basic first aid can't be part of the driving test and taught in schools as part of a life skills class,

They're too preoccupied with teaching kids about shagging.
Sorry to be crude, but it's true.

[bikemad99]

I can't see why basic first aid can't be part of the driving test and taught in schools as part of a life skills class,

They're too preoccupied with teaching kids about shagging.
Sorry to be crude, but it's true.

No one taught us that at our school,but it was the only thing I was any good at.

[slparry]

I can't see why basic first aid can't be part of the driving test and taught in schools as part of a life skills class,

They're too preoccupied with teaching kids about shagging.
Sorry to be crude, but it's true.

Perhaps if it had more mystique about it, as it did in the days when it wasn't mentioned, there'd be fewer teenage pregnancies and young lives stunted before they've had chance to blossom into contributing members of society.

I'm all for education but I do really wonder if sex education is actually a bad thing

[Herb]

I can't see why basic first aid can't be part of the driving test and taught in schools as part of a life skills class,

They're too preoccupied with teaching kids about shagging.
Sorry to be crude, but it's true.

Perhaps if it had more mystique about it, as it did in the days when it wasn't mentioned, there'd be fewer teenage pregnancies and young lives stunted before they've had chance to blossom into contributing members of society.

I'm all for education but I do really wonder if sex education is actually a bad thing

How did we get on this?

My 15 year old lad came home for school with a job lot of condoms that were handed out free if charge at school.

Seeing as the age of consent is 16, shouldn't the school be prosecuted for aiding and abetting or facilitating a crime?

[slparry]

They're too preoccupied with teaching kids about shagging.
Sorry to be crude, but it's true.

Perhaps if it had more mystique about it, as it did in the days when it wasn't mentioned, there'd be fewer teenage pregnancies and young lives stunted before they've had chance to blossom into contributing members of society.

I'm all for education but I do really wonder if sex education is actually a bad thing

How did we get on this?

My 15 year old lad came home for school with a job lot of condoms that were handed out free if charge at school.

Seeing as the age of consent is 16, shouldn't the school be prosecuted for aiding and abetting or facilitating a crime?

or grooming?

[Harry Lime]

Speaking of roadside first aid.
A little conundrum for you.
You're out for a ride one evening in the rural lanes, and you witness a collision involving a motorcyclist who is wearing a full face helmet.
He has stopped breathing.
The ambulance has been called by someone else, but is coming from very far away.
Your casualty has about 10 minutes before oxygen starvation causes death.
What would you do ?

The example you give is quite extreme and any trained First Aider would have that problem...what do I do now?

First Aid doesn't teach that level of diagnosis or skill. It teaches you how to recognize situations and react in a sensible and informed way.

You don't get to be a paramedic with a few courses.

From my courses, the information is that once you're in a CPR situation, there's a minimal chance that the casualty will survive before
professional help arrives.

This still doesn't devalue taking a First Aid course though. You'll learn that lots of things which you thought were sensible, are actually the wrong thing to do.

FWIW, my simple First Aid skills during a nighttime white water kayaking trip when one of our younger members had an elipeptic fit (oh, yes...) inspired one of our team to go from truck driver to qualified mobile paramedic on only five years.

I didn't do much - I just knew what to do...while all others were simply grabbing their phones.....no signal!

Do a course! It's a first step!

H.

[slparry]

I got the impression from the FBoS that what was most "appreciated" by the emergency services was for someone to be trained in basic scene management skills so that emergency vehicles could get to the scene a little easier and to attempt to ensure someone has basic CPR until they arrive to try and ensure the injured person hangs on to life until someone professional can take over.