Blogs highlighting the work of staff and volunteers within the British Red Cross, part of the largest humanitarian organisation movement in the world.
By Brad Smith
March 17, 2010 at 7:00 pm
As the English public recovers from the world-shattering news that David Beckham is unlikely to go to the World Cup this year – even the Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy has an opinion on the subject – I thought it would be interesting to explore what your achilles heel is and how you can treat it if it needs first aid.
Your achilles heel is a tendon which links the calf muscle to the heel bone. If it ruptures – as with what happened to David Beckham this week – it can be very painful and require surgery. As a first aider, for an injury of this scale, you need to get them to hospital for X-Rays and possibly surgery. As an interim measure, you can administer rest, ice, comfortable support and elevation. I described the process when I told you RICE has it’s uses in cricket – watch the video, it’s still excellent advice!
A weakness or weak point that leads to downfall can also be known as an Achilles heel, as fabled in Greek mythology. My Achilles heel is my love of music. It costs me a fortune. What’s yours?
Image © British Red Cross/ Layton Thompson
Tags: achilles heel, David Beckham, First aid, tendon
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 7:00 pm and is filed under First aid. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Brad is a Red Cross first aider. He covers first aid duties and crews ambulances for our event first aid service. He also provides Red Cross first aid training.
Other posts by Brad Smith
The British Red Cross values comments both complimentary and critical. However, we will not tolerate the following: aggressive or personal criticism of the blogger, breach of copyright, obscene, defamatory, profane, sexually oriented, racially offensive or likewise objectionable comments.
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