1st Aid Courses

After the Thetford ride on Sunday and watching Beaker bin it big time, seriously considering booking in for a first aid course. My response on the day was a bit pathetic to say the least. ( remember the " It ain't broke, he'd scream if we poked it if it was" conversation J? ) Anyone have any recommendations? About to have my first kiddy as well, so something that covers everything is the order of the day i think.

This is a good starting point as it covers most stuff:
http://www.redcross.org.uk/standard.asp?id=40690

Then if you want something more applicable then do a 'Mountain Sports' type course which is more geared towards 'MTB type' accidents.

http://www.adventurefirstaid.co.uk/MTOUTDOOR.htm


Oh, and carry some kit in your Camelbak....going without is never a smart move....

i have done a St Johns one, and they were good, regretabuly I have had to use it once or twice but the learning has stayed with me. You might be able to get work to pay ?

Interested in this myself. I was one of the first on scene at a very fatal accident last year involving a car and lorry. It became fairly obvious that I couldn't have done anything other than what I did, ()prevent fire very early as I could not find any trace of a pulse. I wondered afterwards if it hadn't been immediately fatal what would I have done. I did a course years ago and was a life guard for many years so wanted a refresher.
I really struggled to find anywhere. The nearest one was Coventry and I live towards Telford. I would be interested to know how you fair.

Iwasgoodonce":2knttm5d said:

Interested in this myself.
I really struggled to find anywhere. The nearest one was Coventry and I live towards Telford. I would be interested to know how you fair.

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You have a Red Cross place in Stafford that will run courses:

British Red Cross
Red Cross House
13 and 14 Parker Court
Staffordshire Technology Park
Beaconside
Stafford

I considered this a few years back at my work place , after all its always good to have another skill, truth is - one day I found out I couldn't handle the blood thang , we had a really bad experience at our shop when a 'patient' was out for the day and decided it would be ok to hammer someone over the back of the head, the amount of blood was scary - worst yet 'customers' were stepping over the injured pensioner to get 'a tin of paint' - the idiots were saying 'excuse me' to the people trying to administer 1st aid to the gentleman, how the 1st aiders coped that day I don't know.

My point being that anyone who is willing to take on a 1st aid course should be prepared to be put in a situation that is more than a flesh wound, you may be the person that someones life depends upon, sometimes its overwhelming and very upsetting - make sure you can handle it and the idiots around you at the time (sorry guys - no offence), and sometimes you have to come to terms with the fact you can't help the person infront of you

as for that day at work -

after I had been asked to guard the doors and stop customers getting in, the offending attacker had entered our housewares dept - grabbed a meat cleaver - walked up to the counter - and cut his finger off right infront of one of the female members of staff on the counter.

the elderly gentleman, he died within a year.

the 'seagull' as he called himself is just considered ill, and not of sane mind and as such gets free board in an asylum. :evil:



Just to be clear, I am not trying to put anyone off and I have real respect for anyone who does learn the basics, great on the trail - just ................ just be prepared to be the one who everyone turns to, can be a big responsibilty.

retrobikeguy":2cgzc2aj said:

Just to be clear, I am not trying to put anyone off and I have real respect for anyone who does learn the basics, great on the trail - just ................ just be prepared to be the one who everyone turns to, can be a big responsibilty.

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I had a First Aid At Work certificate for 10 years (it's lapsed now and they have more aiders than they need on each shift...) and within a week of 'passing my test' so to speak I was on one of the old Routemaster buses when a mentally handicapped dude stepped off the bus....trouble was the bus was doing about 40mph.... :shock: :shock: :shock:

I looked out of the rear window and saw him cartwheeling down the road, hitting his head on the road with every rotation, before collapsing in a heap. We managed to stop the bus and a bunch of us ran back to where this dude was laying and everyone was just looking.

I'm stood there thinking..."I gotta do something....gotta do something" but I just froze Then after what seemed like ages I just sprang into life....got people out the way and started all the ABC bollocks....trouble was he was bleeding from his ears, nose and mouth and has stopped breathing.....I realised he had swallowed his tongue. So I whipped that badboy back out and he started to breathe, but weirdly....then I saw one of them patient transport things go by so I flagged it down and nicked their first aid kit and very carefully put on a head bandage to stop all the crap coming out his ears etc. By this time an ambulance was on the scene, they thanked me for what I had done, scraped him up and off he went....then the Plod turned up and took statements and I went home and forgot about it. A few days later I get a call from Plod.....the geezer had died from massive head injuries and they wanted me in London to attend the inquest :shock: :shock:

I went back to my first aid teacher cos after it sunk in I went into shock, wondering if I done the right thing blah blah blah...they were good and said I had done what I was trained to do.

Inquest came and went, his family came and thanked me for trying to help and that was that.....

Worse thing I have ever had to treat (and I go caving, climbing, hillwalking and MTB'ing).

Even if you only know the basics you could save someones life....

neilll":mhmcp56q said:

Even if you only know the basics you could save someones life....

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true, just remember - you do what you can.

hat off to ya - I have every respect for you

Yup. You never know when some first aid training might come in handy. Especially when you're involved in 'dangerous' sports.

Mountain bike accidents have a habit of happening miles away from anywhere so you can find yourself on your own when dealing with injuries.

I'd also say that you should always be able to give as precise location as possible to emergency services when you're out in the wilds, so always have a map with grid refs. even if you know the route like the back of your hand.

Air ambulances find it difficult to to locate you if your 'on this path near a hill'.

Most first aid courses do not deliver stuff about children. You need to look up a specific first aid for kids course.

The blood thing - I get to see some pretty grim stuff with Mountain Rescue, can cope with that fine, but if one of my kids gets a small cut, or Mrs Radar, or even if my mum talks about her pacemaker op I sort of go a bit squeamish.

Grim stuff - you sort of get used to it, black humour is a very good, and seemingly standard coping mechanism.

If anyone in the Dark Peak ever wishes to help us (that's Kinder Mountain Rescue Team) out with first aid and would like to be a casualty for the day let me know - it'd be much appreciated. We exercise once a month, volunteering to be a casualty will involve a full day of sitting around being 'poorly'. All rescue teams are constantly looking for exercise casualties - see www.mrc.org.uk for your local team.

(Our first aid involves being able to give drugs, medical gases, splinting etc so is considerably more complicated than First Aid at Work)