Red Cross Blogs

As a child I fell of my mum’s knee and right on to a marble race toy which has left a nice crescent shaped scar in the side of my head. I still remember it as it was before NHS24 and our doctor happily handed out his home phone number. He met us at the surgery and stitched me up only to find that in the rush he had forgotten to turn off the silent alarm. Half way through the procedure the police burst in thinking we were there to rob the medicine store.

As an adult, I have a tale which shows the importance of applying correct first aid and is one of the many reasons I practice my skills regularly as a Red Cross volunteer in addition to being the first aider at work.

I was in a club in my first year at university and my friends had gone to get a round of drinks in at the bar as we had just arrived while I put my jacket in the cloakroom. Walking across the dance floor, I slipped on the wet floor and landed on a broken glass severing an artery in my hand and cutting through the muscle attaching my thumb. Unfortunately, the bouncers hadn’t been trained in first aid and when they bandadged my hand whilst waiting for the ambulance, the bandaged tightly over the glass and I lost sensation in half of my hand.

After 6 hours of plastic surgery and a few months with my arm in plaster so I didn’t pull apart the work everything was back together but to this day I have very limited sensation in my little finger and the one next to it as the ulnar nerve never fully healed

So if anyone comes across someone with a foreign object in a wound, make sure you pack and apply pressure around it rather than on the top and certainly don’t attempt to pull it out!

Tim – sounds like you’ve certainly been “in the wars” over the years! Your dance floor incident sounds like it was a very painful experience, yet it’s a poignant story of why first aid skills can be so useful.

When I was about ten I went body surfing in a two-piece bathing suit in San Diego. The waves were the biggest for 20 years that day, and I only saw the jagged submerged rock when my tummy scraped over the top of it.

I got out of the water and pressed my towel to my bleeding tummy. Bad decision, because the blood dried and an hour later I had to rip the towel away, along with the scab.

I did have a gnarly scar for several years, which I managed to convince some people was the result of a great white shark attack.

Parents may also be interested in a couple of product from our online shop:

First aid fast for babies and children – £9.99
http://www.redcross.org.uk/59727
Indispensable guide that shows you how to deal quickly and confidently with a wide range of emergency situations involving children.

First aid kit for child care – £15.26
http://www.redcross.org.uk/59712
Designed specifically with children in mind, this kit includes guidance for treating children and infants, smaller dressings and extra supplies to deal with those all-too-common cuts and grazes.

I’ve just bookmarked the childfirstaid page. Thank you very much for producing this.

Looks very professional and I will definitely be taking the time to go through it.

Maybe you need to find a way to promote it more? Not sure why I haven’t heard of it before?