being a retained FireFighter in Suffolk
First Aid is simple…
“There’s nowt to it. First Aid is simple”, were the words uttered by George, the lead instructor on our four day First Aid course.
It seemed there were so many things that we just wouldn’t be able to assist with. And in George’s words “there’s f*** all you can do abart it”. So much so that, by Day 3, when he asked us what we could do we’d all chorus, “f*** all!”
I even thought about weaving it in to one of my practical sessions that signalled the end of the course today. In fact, thinking about it, I did… When I’d finished dealing with an unconscious casualty who then needed CPR, I was asked a set of probing questions by our Fire Service examiner. I answered these as fully as I could but the last one was asking me how I’d deal with a certain injury. I answered by saying, “as George would say, f*** all!”.
A pass on that bit. Thank you…
Then the long wait to do the practical session with a live casualty and being assessed by an external nurse (this means she wasn’t part of the Fire Service and not that she sat outside while assessing us…).
The whole shebang probably didn’t last more than 10 minutes but it felt like a lifetime. Thankfully I remembered to ask my casualty about SAMPLE. This isn’t to be confused with asking the casualty for a sample. Unless, of course, I was going to add pregnancy testing to my basic First Aid repertoire! SAMPLE means asking about Signs and Symptoms, Allergies, Medication, Past medical history, Last intake of food or drink and Events leading up to the me finding the casualty.
After I had applied a state of the art, almost Tourniquet style dressing, I had a one sided conversation with the Ambulance control, telling them the life history of my casualty and hoping this purgatory would end. It didn’t so I started asking questions again about the banged head, took the pulse and generally made things more comfortable for the casualty.
And finally it was over. Pass. And only George there to congratulate me… Everyone else with much further than me to travel had gone in with furthest first, leaving old Billy No Mates to go last.
Back to the real world tomorrow and four days worth of work and e-mails to catch up on… Oh joy!
– IAN CARTER (www.accessiblewebsites.co.uk)
