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How to give first aid under pressure

By Mark Cox
September 29, 2010 at 2:19 pm

You’ve seen Speed, right? And you probably know about Snakes on a Plane. Well, coming soon to a blog near you (cue dramatic music): First Aid on a Coach.

I heard a tale recently that underlined a very important but oft over-looked point. As a first aider, you might know your stuff and feel quite confident, but there’s another factor to take on board: other people.

Because sometimes it’s not only the casualty that presents a challenge. Think of the paramedic trying to treat a casualty in the midst of a Saturday night drunken rabble. Or the lifeguard trying to save a child with hysterical parents screaming around him. These are the times when you have to take a deep breath and show what Ernest Hemingway called ‘grace under pressure’.

Last month, Lucy* – who has had Red Cross first aid training – was on a hot and stuffy coach to London when a woman asked the driver if he could stop the vehicle because her husband was unwell. The chap, utilising the cheery demeanour for which British coach drivers are so renowned, said ‘No’ and carried on down the motorway.

The woman returned to her ailing spouse at the back of the coach, then suddenly shouted out in panic as he passed out onto the floor. As a sense of mild panic started to spread through the over-heated coach, Lucy’s husband asked the driver to open the emergency door. The driver continued looking straight ahead and replied: ‘That’s not my job.’

At this point, Cox may well have taken out his hefty Red Cross manual, consulted its fundamental principles celebrating unity, neutrality and the promotion of peace across the world, then batted the driver around the head with it until his ears bled.

Lucy, however, is made of finer stuff. She rushed to the back of coach where the dazed husband was breathing unevenly, checked his airway and put him in the recovery position. She asked her daughter to call the emergency services and, as the man came round, constantly spoke to and reassured him.

The charming driver did eventually stop the coach and open the emergency door, and paramedics arrived soon after to shuttle the casualty off to hospital.

The casualty thanked her as he was carried off and Lucy says she was “well-chuffed” that she knew what to do. She also said: “I was so furious with the driver, I don’t know how I kept control of my emotions.”

But she did keep control, and that’s what counts for first aiders: a cool head in a heated situation.

*Name has been changed.

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Tags: emergency response, First aid, first aid tips, first aid training

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