I'm all trauma'ed out
Those who have been paying attention would have known that last week I did a very full on first aid course. Today was the culmination of the course. A full day of scenarios out at site using our own rescue gear (but the trainers trauma packs so we didn't have to ruin ours) A full day of scenarios might sound like a lot. It was three. We started at 8:30 had about 20 minutes for morning tea, about 30 minutes for lunch and we finished the last debrief a bit after 4. That is a lot of trauma.
The first up was a simulated fall from heights. One of the guys supposedly fell about 10m onto concrete when his harness failed. That meant velocity trauma, almost certain spinal injuries, broken bones and other goodies. I got to be team lead for that. Just what I needed, another batch of pressure first thin in the morning. I apparently didn't do too bad, except I kept saying "Mate, this is going to hurt" when we were about to do something, which is not the right thing to do. You should say, "Mate, we just need to do something." I blame it on my truthful nature.
We did have the interesting situation of we had to get him from the antenna to the main building (The RFDS were three hours away apparently). We had been told because it was just a simulation, we had to stick to all the road requirements, which meant no one riding in the back of utes. I was asked how to get him back and I said "If this was an emergency I'd put him in the back of a ute" So about the only alternative left was to lay him across the back seats of one of the cars. I went for a dual-cab ute first (wrong choice) so we changed to the landcruiser (better choice). Of course he didn't fit in the cruiser, so we tied the doors open and two of had to walk back beside the car monitoring him. It was a looooong walk back.
Next exercise was a simulated electrocution. Out sparkie was unconscious working on the raised floor and that was all we knew. First interesting thing was we weren't sure how to isolate just the rack he was working on, so we killed power to the whole room, which meant we had to go in with torches. We got him out ok, cardinal sin we committed was we rolled him onto his back to transport him. Can't put unconscious people on their back because they have no muscle tone so their tongue may fall back in their throat and they stop breathing. Just when we got him out, he went into cardiac arrest. We had been intelligent and brought the rescue gear. This was where I was a bit hesistant. We have a portable defib machin, but we had been using the special training ones.
The training ones go through all the steps even when they detect a signal and are programmed to tell you they're going to give a shock, even though they don't. Our real one of course can give a shock, but the paddles and everything are all sterile, so I was trying to find out if we should be using the training one or the real one. The real one, but just pretend to put on the paddles. The side effect of that was while we were giving CPR that thing was sitting there going "place paddles on chest... Remain calm... place paddles on chest..." But the good news is, he survived.
Last one I got to be a casualty again. There were three of us in the car, I was driving, I apparently swerved to miss a roo and hit a tree. I felt guilty about that, I wanted to black out instead. Sorry, roos, but you shouldn't swerve to avoid them. In that I had bad cuts on my arms and a broken leg. The passenger had a broken leg as well and bad cuts to his arms, both of us were conscious, but not alert. In the back, our third passenger was very alert and conscious, but could not feel her legs. This time the first people on the scene were also driving home, so they had one trauma pack and that was it. One trauma pack between three people is not enough. Also three people for three casualties is not enough either. So onto the radio and told everyone else to get there quick with all the gear.
I got a collar thrown on me pretty quick so that was the end of it for me, I was stuck looking out the front of the car, then staring at the sky once people got me out. It was a bugger of an exercise, all sorts of evil thing. Two people with suspected spinal injuries, but only one backboard. It lasted a little longer than anticipated because it was suppose to end when the last passenger was taken out, except we had learnt from the first exercise and discussed options, so while she was being tied two, two of the other guys had pulled out the cargo barrier on the cruiser and laid down the seats, so we rolled her into that and drove her back to the main building. All up, just the rescue took one hour and forty minutes. If you had asked me how long it was, without a watch, I would have said about half an hour.
I am feeling more confident now. It is one of those strange skills that you want to know, but never want to have to put into practice. The worse thing is that last one is statistically, probably the most likely one we'll have. With the distance we drive each week, I'm actually surprised we haven't come across any accidents so far.
There was an interesting question at dinner. One of the high-ups who was just there as an observer and who hadn't done any of the course. (I didn't like him, he walked around with a clipboard, I really think he should have to do the course first or better still, get thrown into a scenario) Anyway, he asked if we came across an accident like the one we simulated, but if there were only two people in the far, would we stop to help? I'm not sure, but he seemed surprised when we all went "yes" He countered that by saying, "But you've shown it takes way more than two to look after a casualty" Yeah, it does, but I'm not going to go, "Oh, I need a team, so I'll keep going" if I see a prang on the side of the road.
Anyway, I hope the next few days are a bit mundane, I think I'm over rescuing people. We will be scheduling a run of putting out lights on the airstrip though, that is going to be fun. But that probably won't be this week.
The first up was a simulated fall from heights. One of the guys supposedly fell about 10m onto concrete when his harness failed. That meant velocity trauma, almost certain spinal injuries, broken bones and other goodies. I got to be team lead for that. Just what I needed, another batch of pressure first thin in the morning. I apparently didn't do too bad, except I kept saying "Mate, this is going to hurt" when we were about to do something, which is not the right thing to do. You should say, "Mate, we just need to do something." I blame it on my truthful nature.
We did have the interesting situation of we had to get him from the antenna to the main building (The RFDS were three hours away apparently). We had been told because it was just a simulation, we had to stick to all the road requirements, which meant no one riding in the back of utes. I was asked how to get him back and I said "If this was an emergency I'd put him in the back of a ute" So about the only alternative left was to lay him across the back seats of one of the cars. I went for a dual-cab ute first (wrong choice) so we changed to the landcruiser (better choice). Of course he didn't fit in the cruiser, so we tied the doors open and two of had to walk back beside the car monitoring him. It was a looooong walk back.
Next exercise was a simulated electrocution. Out sparkie was unconscious working on the raised floor and that was all we knew. First interesting thing was we weren't sure how to isolate just the rack he was working on, so we killed power to the whole room, which meant we had to go in with torches. We got him out ok, cardinal sin we committed was we rolled him onto his back to transport him. Can't put unconscious people on their back because they have no muscle tone so their tongue may fall back in their throat and they stop breathing. Just when we got him out, he went into cardiac arrest. We had been intelligent and brought the rescue gear. This was where I was a bit hesistant. We have a portable defib machin, but we had been using the special training ones.
The training ones go through all the steps even when they detect a signal and are programmed to tell you they're going to give a shock, even though they don't. Our real one of course can give a shock, but the paddles and everything are all sterile, so I was trying to find out if we should be using the training one or the real one. The real one, but just pretend to put on the paddles. The side effect of that was while we were giving CPR that thing was sitting there going "place paddles on chest... Remain calm... place paddles on chest..." But the good news is, he survived.
Last one I got to be a casualty again. There were three of us in the car, I was driving, I apparently swerved to miss a roo and hit a tree. I felt guilty about that, I wanted to black out instead. Sorry, roos, but you shouldn't swerve to avoid them. In that I had bad cuts on my arms and a broken leg. The passenger had a broken leg as well and bad cuts to his arms, both of us were conscious, but not alert. In the back, our third passenger was very alert and conscious, but could not feel her legs. This time the first people on the scene were also driving home, so they had one trauma pack and that was it. One trauma pack between three people is not enough. Also three people for three casualties is not enough either. So onto the radio and told everyone else to get there quick with all the gear.
I got a collar thrown on me pretty quick so that was the end of it for me, I was stuck looking out the front of the car, then staring at the sky once people got me out. It was a bugger of an exercise, all sorts of evil thing. Two people with suspected spinal injuries, but only one backboard. It lasted a little longer than anticipated because it was suppose to end when the last passenger was taken out, except we had learnt from the first exercise and discussed options, so while she was being tied two, two of the other guys had pulled out the cargo barrier on the cruiser and laid down the seats, so we rolled her into that and drove her back to the main building. All up, just the rescue took one hour and forty minutes. If you had asked me how long it was, without a watch, I would have said about half an hour.
I am feeling more confident now. It is one of those strange skills that you want to know, but never want to have to put into practice. The worse thing is that last one is statistically, probably the most likely one we'll have. With the distance we drive each week, I'm actually surprised we haven't come across any accidents so far.
There was an interesting question at dinner. One of the high-ups who was just there as an observer and who hadn't done any of the course. (I didn't like him, he walked around with a clipboard, I really think he should have to do the course first or better still, get thrown into a scenario) Anyway, he asked if we came across an accident like the one we simulated, but if there were only two people in the far, would we stop to help? I'm not sure, but he seemed surprised when we all went "yes" He countered that by saying, "But you've shown it takes way more than two to look after a casualty" Yeah, it does, but I'm not going to go, "Oh, I need a team, so I'll keep going" if I see a prang on the side of the road.
Anyway, I hope the next few days are a bit mundane, I think I'm over rescuing people. We will be scheduling a run of putting out lights on the airstrip though, that is going to be fun. But that probably won't be this week.