The club recently ran a very successful two-day first aid course with a special emphasis for trampers. Sixteen club members have now updated their first aid to First Aid Level 2 under the enthusiastic instruction of Margaret from St John.
They revised their CPR skills, stemmed serious bleeding, tended to fractures and wasp stings and burns, warmed hypothermic patients and cooled hyperthermic ones, controlled anaphylaxic shock, tended to a choking child, and heaps and heaps more besides. It was interesting that solo trampers could be seen bandaging themselves!
However, during the course, and especially during some of the (unfortunately) very realistic possible ‘accident’ scenarios it was obvious that our club first aid kits are in need of a serious update. The newsletter Ed has accepted the job of doing this, and would therefore welcome feedback from anyone who may have recently needed to use a club kit, and if it contained those items they needed.
But now a word of warning. Ed would very strongly make the point that the new upgraded kits will only be useful if the person using them knows what they are doing and has the skills to manage an injured trip member. It is next to useless carrying a kit just because it is on the recommended list of group gear, but not having a clue how to use the stuff in it. So it is really up to everyone to improve their first aid skills and be able to cope with those emergencies that fortunately are rare – but may have serious consequences if not correctly managed. Because anyone venturing into the hills will eventually need to use first aid even if it is only for cuts and strains – that much is certain.