More notes from a First Aid in Remote Locations course.
Curtains open and it looks overcast outside, we are hoping that the weather holds out as a lot of the lessons are outside today! Luckily we have packed for every eventuality but it isn’t very comfortable lying on the floor in a puddle whilst it rains, I’ve been here before, it’s a very glamorous job that we do! At least we get a good breakfast to set us up for the morning. The table once again is filled with discussions of what we have in store for today and we have a little talk over the performance of the delegates yesterday. We finish up and head to the venue, fingers crossed the traffic is better today.
We arrive at the venue with plenty of time to spare! So we grab a drink and Kelly and I head to the dressing room and have a little tidy and sort out of kit what we will need today.
Kelly and I will take it in turns to be casualty on this one as there is a lot of laying around involved and playing dead on the floor gets surprisingly uncomfortable and cold. We have a check list and grab all that we need. Even though this is a simple scenario it is a very complex lesson for the delegates which involves improvising stretchers and splints also moving a casually so we need to make sure that we are both wrapped up warm as we will be spending some time on the floor and outside for the majority of the morning.
Today the delegates in a group will be confronted with a fall from height, I get in position and take a swig of the mouth blood as Alistair come across the radio and lets us know that he is close. Laying on my back,, unresponsive on the floor with a hidden wound! Lets see if they find it, after our blood sweep lesson yesterday and the game that they played hopefully they will remember to have a look.
Calling my name they come running up the hill in groups of two, they immediately notice that I have an obstructed air way roll me to the side and have a rummage.. thank good ness they acted so quickly as the mouth blood really tastes revolting! I know why Kelly didn’t offer her services for this one!!
Each and every group manage to clear the obstruction and three out of the six group found the hidden wound, really great! Efforts. With all of the delegates outside we talk over a fall from height they list the injuries that they believe they may see in this type of event. Time for some splinting they get to have a play with the SAM splint and have go splinting each other making a neck brace then its Kelly’s time to lay on the floor and have her pelvis splinted. Alistair ties her legs and ankles together with some scarfs and then improvises a splint. Now they make an improvised stretcher and they need to move Kelly to get her on top of it. So with one of the best first logs rolls I have ever seen the stretcher is half way there. Another log roll to the other side and she is on… Alistair reiterates how important it is to use your brains before your muscle and how the head person is in charge and off they go.
Wow already time for lunch! We quickly waff our food down, and then make our way back to the dressing room, packing the kit along as we go just to make life easier and to keep everything tidy in our room. We sort out what we require for the next scenarios and the casualty clothing. Kelly has to prep for a gas fire explosion so we gather the kit required to make a camp then the fun starts with the casualty simulation. Making burns is one of my favourite casualty simulation to do and it’s great doing it on some one else. So with PVA glue in hand and some tissue paper we begin to create the burn to the face and the hand… out comes the burns make up to colour the dead hanging skin that we have created and to make the area look sore, also some Vaseline to create blisters and she is about ready… Alistair did mention to have another hidden wound some bruise of some kind so we give Kelly a bruise to her collarbone.
We head up the track with all of the kit that we need and make a camp fire for Kelly and try to make it look as though there has been an explosion
This is another group activity, Here is what they will be face on arrival. Time for Kelly to play the lead role, thank goodness we took drama at school, aye Kelly!
We have another scenario to run straight after this one so I cannot see what happens for the burns unfortunately. From now the scenarios are done individually or in small groups and it would be a shame to give too much information away! The photos and videos clips on our Facebook and YouTube pages will give you some idea.