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"What I do at the Weekend"

I've been a member of the Red Cross for about four or five months now. Apart from the training you get, we attend shows and festivals and wait on standby with first aid treatment and helping casualties and so forth.

I've only just finished my basic training so I can't say I'm completely fantastic at it.. but it's really nice to have a job where you feel useful, that people respect you, and you can actually do something to help them, no matter how small.

The first major thing that happened was back a few months ago in a Medieval Festival. People doing sword fights and jousting. Unfortunately, no limbs were lost.

However this one guy was playing with his nephews, was tackled to the ground, fell awkwardly and put his back out.

Dr Thraves on the scene, panicking like anything, whilst the person I would have relied on was running back and forth to the tent getting cushions. The ambulance crew were there for this one, and asked for my assistance.

At the time I'd had basically no training, had no idea about anything, but thankfully the ambulance men/women took control, I ran up with the guy who'd come back with a cushion to get the stretcher, came back with it, we lifted the bad back guy onto the stretcher and carried him up to the tent.

That was really my first kinda experience in really being involved in something, carrying this guy on a stretcher. He was in a lot of pain so we tried to make it comfortable for him.. but the feeling of being involved in something was amazing. Granted I had no idea what I was doing, but it kicked something off in me, some bit of excitement. I watched as the ambulance crew gave him an intravenous drip, gave him some gas to breathe (I can't for the life of me remember what it's called, trust me to forget) and looked after him until the ambulance arrived to take him away.

Afterwards I met with the ambulance guy and apologised for being a bit panicked when it all happened. He told me it was fine, and thanked me for helping, asked why the ambulance needed to be there at all as we could have handled things on our own. (The others had actually been trained and were great, I was still a bit confused.)

Today there was a cancer charity fete and we'd been invited along to help. Only three of us, including one girl who's not really had much training or confidence, so it was just me and the boss really.

It was a nice day, very sunny. The boss and the girl had gone out for a walk around the place to keep an eye, and an old woman came in to talk to me.

Apparently there'd been an accident and someone wanted the Red Cross to come help.

Now.. think back to me panicking at having to deal with this guy who's back had gone out.

..and I didn't panic at all. I was on my own, I'd had more training, I knew how to help people. I suddenly had a wave of confidence.

I kept extremely calm, came out with the old woman and walked towards whereabouts the casualty apparently was. All I could think was how important it was to help the person.. all my fears went out the window, I knew how to help in a lot of situations, and besides, the important thing was being someone professional who could help, reassure the person, help them, or get more help if needed.

So it was strange to face that. My boss was telling me afterwards how there was this one girl who studied the textbooks from cover to cover, knew all the first aid.. and one day was faced with having to deal with an emergency, completely locked up and the casualty died. It was pretty empowering knowing I could face something now.

So anyway, I turned up to the accident.. looked around..

And er.

An old woman had fell off a chair.

And was perfectly fine. Not a scratch on her. Just fell off the chair.

To be honest, after facing what it feels like to be alone in a situation and take charge yourself, I was a little disappointed. It did raise a smile to think about this poor old woman falling off a chair, but er.

Yes. She was a bit worried because she'd just had a new hip, and was thinking she had to look after it and so on. I told her to come see me, or send someone to come find me if she felt any pain at all, or if she was having problems.

And that was that. My first experience of being a first aider on my own and it was a bit of a let down.

I guess the important thing is though that I managed to face it on my own.. take charge, responsibility, and knew exactly what was needed from me. It wasn't a struggle, I didn't go over things in my head too much or panic, I just knew what I had to do. Which was a great feeling for me, knowing now I can face something on my own and not have to worry.

Done anything exciting this weekend?

Thanks verymuch

I wonder if I can get a first aid kit on Amazon..

£30 will buy a lot of Elastoplasts, grats on the win, thoroughly deservered :)

Wow thanks again. I seem to be on a bit of a roll recently.

Good stories too guys.. I hate the thought of people not wanting to help. It's beyond me, I can't see how anyone could live with that on their mind.

I was thinking about this the other day. My father is the type of person that only believes what the world is like from the news. That people get murdered, blow each other up, steal wallets from smashing windows in cars.. he's quite paranoid about people breaking into our house and killing/stealing from us.

The way I see it, is that people do good things every day and you never hear about them. Nobody reports that a young child helped a lady cross the road, nobody reports that a wallet was returned to someone or that even someone was resuscitated by an ambulance team whilst someone gave CPR. It happens, it must do. But never reported.

I think the best thing you can do is to be the sort of person you want others to try to be too. Apart from leading by example, by adding yourself to a world that doesn't report about things like that, you can rid yourself of the thought that the world really is nothing but bad.

Again, thanks for the win guys. Vexxed? Who knows, but thank you very much.

Congrats conGrix.

Go FM and Garin! Good job, guys.

I've only ever had to go to somebody's aid once, what I especially remember about the incident though was the number of people that didnt help.

This old gentleman was walking his dogs along the top of an embankment that runs along side a road and he sees this woman coming in the opposite direction with her dog. In trying to avoid the dogs coming together he falls down the embankment. So there he is, lying at the bottom, immobile in a huge pool of blood. The woman who he'd been trying to get out of the way of, turns around and walks off. At that point I was on the other side of the road. The road was walled so there was no easy way to get to him but I started walking around thinking somebody will get to him before me anyway. While I'm trying to reach him, cars are slowing down for a look and then just driving on. Some of them even had the audacity to look at me and tell me to help him and then drive off.

His dogs played a large part in me helping him too. He had 2 huge dogs, an alsation and I think a rottweiler. As I'm approaching him, all thats going through my mind is that these dogs are going to savage me. :) Since I was so focused on that, I didnt really think anything much of actually giving the man aid. All turned out nicely in the end though, finally a car stopped and the guy called an ambulance. And fears about the dogs were unfounded, they were quite friendly. :P

Not exactly an exciting story, but always stuck with me because I still cannot believe the way people behaved.

I got complete deja vu reading this thread because about 20 years ago I was on a bus and the guy in the seat in front of me had a seisure, looked like epilepsy, I froze but fortunately a nurse was in the seat in front of him and took control and ordered the people around her to hold his legs, hold his arms etc., until an ambulance arrived (the bus pulled over and the driver radioed for one) and took him away.

Then about a couple of years ago I was walking a long a residential part of Bristol when a guy walked out of a house about 50 yards in front of me pulling his pushbike, then had a similar fit, but this time fell down the stone steps outside his house entangled with his bike and gave his head a complete whack on the pavement (funny how a head whacking on concrete sounds like a coconut being dropped).

This time I was the only one around who could help, so didn't hesitate. Got him in recovery, checked his vitals, checked his airways, used my coat to cushion his head and keep the sun off his face, then tried to flag down passing cars to get one of them to call an ambulance. Not one of them stopped, but eventually this 12 year old kid came and I asked him to use the nearby payphone to call for one, which he did, then he came back and put the pushbike back into the guy's house, which was neat of him because he could have just cycled away with it.

Apart from the head on concrete sound the only thing that stood out from that day was the fact that no barstewards would pull over to help, just the little kid, who didn't have a lot of choice as I commandered him.

I've done the superhero things a few times since then, each time it gets easier. I've gone through about 3 jackets soaking up other peoples' blood and only ever been thanked by medics, but then you don't really do it for the thanks.

P.S. At the weekends I spend my time killing lots of little monsters in videogames with guns, swords, daggers, axes, etc.

P.P.S. You're an effing hero if you work for the Red Cross :)

Grix wrote:
> Done anything exciting this weekend?

Well I was at this charity fete this weekend and fell off my chair. I was in a bit of a tizz because I’ve just had a hip replacement but this nice young man came by and helped.

Other than that I cooked a meal this weekend. Not exciting exactly but definitely unusual and I burnt my finger on the oven - look^^

Hmm… joining an organisation to help others? Good for you – I’m glad you are enjoying it. I sometimes used to think about joining St. Johns Ambulance. Not because I’m a caring person but because they were always there at the rugby matches, wandering around the ground, getting the best views. I’d have been horrified if someone actually needed assistance and very put out if I’d have missed a try because of them :D

Grix Thraves wrote:
> I was on my own, I'd had more
> training, I knew how to help people. I suddenly had a wave of
> confidence.



Dear lord.. you know, Darren, this really REALLY reminds me of these Holiday Inn Express commercials that run out here. Pft.

Here's another! Hehe :P

I got told something that stuck with me today at Red Cross.

Someone accidentally said about performing CPR on someone who was still breathing, just unconscious. I said straight out "It’s probably better to do it if they were dead."

And my boss told me off, said you can’t call someone dead.

At first I thought ’eh? Why the hell not, they’re dead aren’t they? They’re not breathing, their heart is stopped, they’re dead.’

She went onto explain.

The only person that can say if someone is dead or not, is a doctor. Whilst someone might not be breathing, whilst their heart may have stopped, you cannot say, yourself, that they are dead. You start CPR. You call an ambulance.

But you do not have the power to say this person is dead. You have to continue giving CPR until the ambulance arrives. You can’t just give up because you think it’s pointless, that they’re gone and dead. That’s not your call to make.

Because in the end, you’re unlikely to restart someone’s heart with CPR. They’re not going to just wake up out of it when you’re doing it. All you’re doing is trying your best to pump oxygen around the body so the tissue, and the brain, doesn’t die. That the person doesn’t get brain damage.

And you keep CPR going no matter what. It’s delaying death. It probably won’t save them because that’s what the defibrillator is there for, to revive them, but it’ll give them a chance of having no brain damage. As long as you can keep oxygenated blood pumping around their body, they are not ’dead’.

Nobody but the doctor can say otherwise.