Not a post about Liverpool FC, blokish as that might be. To the late Bill Shankly, football was, in any case, more important than a matter of life and death.
A couple of years ago, after helping to raise three children and see them spread their wings, I found more personal time and looked to update my first aid skills. I had, in the past, trained in first aid with the Scouts, undertaken battlefield surgery with the Army and used first aid as an intrinsic part of mountain leadership skills. One thing led to another and I became a St John Ambulance volunteer. That deserves a post in its own right!
Performing a wide varieties of duties, including experiencing my first live CPR incident (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation), I have come to recognise how fragile human life is and how we could all make, with a small bank of first aid knowledge, “the difference”. In an acute, everyday situation, a familiarisation with basic first aid will save life. As we all know, few physicians are trained regularly in emergency first aid, apart from A&E Consultants. I know only too well: my daughter is training as a medic.
St John Ambulance recently ran a corporate communications campaign, Be the Difference, using photographs of cadavers – people who had died unnecessarily – with the full permission of their relatives, of course. The campaign expressed a belief, that “nobody should die because they needed first aid and didn’t get it”. It’s dramatic and upsetting but it makes the point emphatically. Every year, St John Ambulance claims, nearly 150,000 people die in situations where first aid could have given them a chance to live.
Imagine you are in a situation where someone collapses and appears to be unconscious. What would you do?
They could be having a fit; suffering a heart attack; angina; a stroke…you may have little time to react before brain damage starts.
What if a child (of yours?) chokes with an object stuck in its throat? I’m afraid the Heimlich Manoeuvre is out of date: current practice is to encourage the casualty to cough (if they aren’t already coughing!); if that doesn’t work, use five blows to the back between the shoulder blades using the heel of your hand; repeat these two steps up to three times before trying abdominal thrusts, the so-called Heimlich Manoeuvre. It is actually more complicated than this so please refer to the latest First Aid Manual (9th Edition) which, at £6, is a snip.
This is the sort of scenario that motivated me to update my skills. I felt, as a responsible adult, that I should never be in a situation where I could not ‘make a difference’. Basic first aid – pressure on a wound or a slap on the back – can be the difference between a life lost and a life saved. First aid saved Jackie from dying on her kitchen floor, and it saved Keith from dying on a London street.
Here are five situations where first aid could be the difference between a life lost and a life saved:
1.Severe bleeding: how to help
3.Heart attack: how to help someone suffering a heart attack
4.Unconscious, breathing casualty: how to help
5.Unconscious casualty, not breathing: how to help
Just mastering this small amount of first aid knowledge will give you confidence. If you don’t have time to follow all these links to the St John Ambulance website, which, incidentally, has a wealth of information, then at least send for the free, credit card-sized guide which summarises what to do in the five situations described above.
Ideally, go on a basic first aid course. There are a plethora of courses for all ages and experience. For those who are cynical about the value of courses, acquire knowledge yourself through some of the methods I have outlined above. In Norway, nearly everyone undergoes first aid training at school, and afterwards, and they would be surprised if you did not know how to use an AED (automated external defibrillator), stationed in most public places and amenities in the UK. It’s one of the first things I look for when I arrive in a new location.
If Bill Shankly were still here and asked whether first aid was a matter of life and death, he might well say: “Ach, hen, it’s much more important than that!”
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