Had a fun night at base last night doing a first aid refresher, going over simpler things like oxygen treatment, and looking at more awkward spinal and pelvis management – it’s all fine and dandy trying to put a C-spine collar on when your casaulty is alert, sitting upright and compliant, but when he’s lying on his chest, with one arm around his head and his head at an awkward angle – say, for example, like he might be if he fell from the top of a cliff maybe, then it takes a lot more time and care to not cause any further damage while you’re trying to provide the best spinal care possible.
Whilst up at base, we had an update the on the 4-minute-callout of earlier this week. It’s quite interesting, as we might see more of this kind of thing. Apparently, a lady fell in a town center near to us and injured her back. For whatever reason (and I’m sure Tom would have something to say on this) the ambulance had not arrived 2 hours later. The police on scene decided against carrying her into their vehicle due to the potential spinal injuries, and the fire brigade were also very busy. The duty inspector, in trying to think of who else to call who could help, decided to give us a shout. As our IC was on the phone to the Inspector the call came through that the ambulance had actually arrived on scene, and so we were stood down. That call, however, would have been very interesting, and I hope that we do get the opportunity to do more of that kind of work.
Finally, our new intake for this year is padding out nicely, with a wide variety of backgrounds and ages. Totty quotient is up this year too… *evil grin*