BREATHING, BLEEDING, BURNS, BONES ...

. . . the four ‘B’s when assessing a casualty and just one of the many useful items of information covered on the First Aid Course for Walkers held on 17th November 2007 at Red Cross House, Abingdon, 10 members of the Oxfordshire Area attending. Described as Basic First Aid, Module 5, the emphasis was on dealing with first aid situations in the countryside, but covered emergencies which could occur anywhere to members of the public or family and friends, not just fellow walkers.

Emphasis was placed on the priorities relevant to every emergency situation – for example, before attempting to assess the state of the casualty, ensuring there is no immediate danger to yourself, other members of your group, or bystanders, as well as the injured person, and dealing with that danger. Failing to do this could result in further injury, compounding an already hazardous situation. Once you have established that the immediate environment is safe, you can then go on to assess the injuries to the casualty (the four ‘B’s) and how best to deal with them.

We were given guidance on what to tell the ambulance service and the reasons for their questions, how to administer CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation) to both adults and children, how to put a person into the recovery position, how to deal with burns and scalds, serious and minor bleeding, drowning, broken bones, sprains and very relevant to hill and mountain walkers, dealing with exposure and heat exhaustion. In addition to trauma arising from accidents, what to do in the case of an angina attack, heart attack, stroke, seizure etc. were all covered.

This was a very informative, enjoyable course and time well spent. Watch out for the next one – I can recommend it!

Hazel Lister,
Banbury & North Oxfordshire (formerly Cherwell) Group

First Aid Course

All walk leaders and most ramblers must have wondered what they would do if there was an accident or medical emergency while they were out walking. An answer is at hand – go on one of the occasional Basic First Aid courses, which the British Red Cross Society runs for the Ramblers Oxfordshire groups.

The course takes place in Red Cross House, Abingdon and Keith Turner who covered most of the emergencies we are likely to encounter, from exhaustion to a heart attack very ably tutored our group. This information would also be useful in an everyday situation.

We learnt the correct procedures to follow and what to leave to the trained medics. First aid procedures have evolved over the past few years and lessons learnt 25 years ago might not be as relevant nowadays but this course gives confidence that you are comparatively up-to-date.

This one-day course was both informative and great fun and you never know it could one day save a life – maybe yours.