Knowing how to do first aid could have saved a mans' life

[Big fat bill]

I must be sad then because I do ask security or customer services where the shock boxes are Small shops are unlikely to have one but shopping centres and public places could have them and it's important to me to know where they are.

It's good news that the St Johns are doing the associate membership thing. When I was in the SJA it was made clear that only SJ Members were covered and only on duty. Mind you the cynical side of me says it's a good sales pitch but a good thing non the less.

[ticklemonkey]

Go to http://www.resus.org.uk
It is the UK Resuscitation Council's website which gives a huge amount of information and if it goes pear-shaped if you state you followed these guidelines there should be no issues.

Funnily enough, the less training you have, the lower the duty of care you owe. As a 'passer-by' it is legally none, of course. Morally is another matter.

I am not aware of any 'successful' attempts to sue a 'first aider' and one case that got to court against a 'large first aid organisation' was thrown out pretty darn rapidly by the presiding!!!

In regards to potential 'assault charges' this does not sound 100% and if you could PM me the details, court date, name of person, police force involved (all is 'public record' so no data protection issues involved though PMing would be wise methinks), I would like to investigate it further.

One cannot, of course, comment on individual cases especially without all the evidence available!

[ro2935]

Maxilaura, You did a lot to help this man, & you tried to shield 2 children from a harrowing experience, by staying on the phone you was able to relay information to the dispatcher and pass on info to the person who placed him into the recovery position.
A first aid course is always useful, but even a fully trained team are not able to save everyone, try not to beat yourself up too much.
You have been given a gret deal of very good advice, I would like to add one more, if you see a middle aged/elderly person collapse pat down there pockets to see if they have any medication on them, when you phone for help tell the dispatcher if you find anything & if it is Nitro Glycerine pop a tablet under their tongue

[ro2935]

Don't beat yourself up, you did what you were able to do and that was good. I hope we don't follow the french and germans, It's hard enough now with over bearing " I 've done a 2 hour first aid course with you tuber senarios so i'm a doctor now" type do gooders flailing and thrashing all over the place.

Bill you must be talking about this woman I met


A while back a friend who had recently had her 4th child was meeting a group of us in the local cafe, as I raised my hand to greet her she collapses on to her toddlers pushchair and goes into a full seizure. I'm first there so I pulls her off the pushchair and the two friends behind me start to pull the frightened tot out of a partially collapsed pram.
From nowhere this woman sweeps in and tries to put my friend into the recovery position, my friend was making guttral sounds but her airways was clear, I'm trying to take the new baby out of the baby sling that is firmly attached to her mothers chest and this unknown woman is screaming at me that she is a chiropodist and that the patient needs to be rolled over because she is going to die from a swallowed tongue. Well finally gets the baby loose and this woman is still screaming she knows what to do as she is a qualified chiropodist, I'm now able to make sure my friend dosen't hurt herself any further and as the fit finishes I roll her over and turn to the would be expert and says "darling , you are at the wrong end her feet are at the bottom, & if I had allowed you too put my friend into the recovery position you would have crushed her new baby, congratulations on being a qualified chiropodist, your mother must be so proud of you; as are my parents of me a qualified nurse, as are the 2 women behind you who are caring for our friends baby and little girl; thanks for your help but as you can see we have the sitation under control"

[maxilaura]

Thanks Ro for the advise re. checking for meds, will remember that.

[dizzydays]

From nowhere this woman sweeps in and tries to put my friend into the recovery position, my friend was making guttral sounds but her airways was clear, I'm trying to take the new baby out of the baby sling that is firmly attached to her mothers chest and this unknown woman is screaming at me that she is a chiropodist and that the patient needs to be rolled over because she is going to die from a swallowed tongue......[/quote]

Ooh this woman gets around - but she wasn't a chiropodist when I met her. I was in the village just as an elderly lady tripped over the pavement, couldn't save herself cos she had arms full of shopping/walking stick etc and thus smacked into the ground head first. She was talking but very aware of the river of blood running from her head, which wasn't anywhere near as bad as it looked. Breathing was fine and she didn't want to move. So I took the decision to sit on the pavement with her, cover her with a warm blanket, wait for the ambulance and not move her in case walloping her fore head had caused a neck injury.
'The woman' charged me, screaming about she was a first aider and to put her in the recovery position immediately or else' and we had quite a battle. I got rid of her with 'I'm a registered nurse' but she told every bystander around that the woman should be in the recovery position and I didn't know what I was doing. Scary stuff really. A little knowledge and all that...


DD

[Jan Mayen]

We are told that you don't let anyone take over care or do anything anyone else says, regardless of who or what they say they are if you don't personally know them to be a doctor or paramedic. They could be the head of the resuscitation council, but they can sod right off until the disco truck turns up. The only people we hand over the care of a patient to is a GP known to us personally, or the ambulance crew.

This stems from an incident where some random bloke came across a resuscitation attempt in progress and proceeded to PLE (pronounce life extinct) on the patient as he told them he was a doctor. The two guys working on the victim didn't know any better and thought it was fine to hand over. Turned out the doctor had been struck off for malpractice and wasn't allowed to practice medicine at all. *sigh*

Some people watch far too much casualty!

[the-gnole]

Some people watch far too much casualty!

On that particular point the makers of the program are advised on such scenes by professional bodies so they are accurate, the basic skills they show do ring true so that if someone did come across an incident where "first aid" might be needed they should know the basics.

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/481713/index.html

Former Casualty producer Johnathan Young says that the programme's medical consultants ensure scripts are accurate. "We know very well that the audience wants to see our characters as doctors and nurses, and we also believe very strongly that it is the realism of it which makes the show sustainable,"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/314416.stm

Television educates audience

Another study, also published in Friday's British Medical Journal, found that the same episode of Casualty improved people's awareness of the dangers of paracetamol.

A week after the broadcast they sent questionnaires to members of the BBC Television Opinion Panel.

It questioned their knowledge about the effects of paracetamol on the liver, and the questions were repeated after 32 weeks.

They found that those who had watched the programme had a greater level of knowledge on the subject than those who had not, and that they retained that knowledge.

The researchers, led by Dr Susan O'Connor of the United Bristol Healthcare Trust, said: "Television is an important potential source of medical information.

"Medical messages broadcast within television programmes are likely to have an impact on the knowledge of the general public.

"Editors should be aware of this and ensure they are accurate and complete."

A lot of the rest of the plot is a good dose of fiction with gossip, messing about and breaches of Data protection, but that's about audience figures, no one really watches it for the medical proceedures, but for the fighting and bitching