Red Cross Blogs

First aider makes ice work of new skills

By Alix Miller
January 3, 2011 at 3:00 pm

Our first aid volunteers often wonder when they happen to be passing by when accidents strike, whether they are in the right place at the right time or the right place at the wrong time. Whatever the answer, you never know when fate’s hand will place a needy person in your path.

For one brand new first aid volunteer, Kerry Roberts, 22, it was just moments after she had completed one of our first aid courses, in Manchester.

Kerry, from Warrington, had just left the course, and walked a couple of streets when she spotted a woman in her fifties who had slipped on the ice and fallen. She was unconscious. While a passerby called an ambulance, Kerry and another woman checked her breathing and cleared the casualty’s airway.

Kerry recalled: “Before doing the training I probably wouldn’t have stopped, but would have assumed that those around the lady would have helped. As I approached the woman it was clear I was the only one who knew first aid.

“We kept her warm with our coats and scarves, talked to her, and she eventually came around enough to give us her name. It was only after the paramedics had taken her to hospital that I realised I was soaked from kneeling on the frozen floor. I think I was more shocked than she was.

“I couldn’t believe what a coincidence it was to have just left the training and to use it straight away. I felt a bit nervous initially but was confident I knew what to do as everything was still fresh in my mind. The trainers had made it so simple and proved to her that giving first aid wasn’t complex or technical; that it just takes a few small actions to make a big difference. I’m now much more confident about acting again in the future if I saw anybody get hurt.

Would you have the skills and confidence to act in a similar situation? Learn some easy first aid tips, or sign up for our popular general first aid course.

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Tags: Emergencies, First aid, first aid tips, first aid training, UK, volunteer, Volunteering

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 3rd, 2011 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Emergencies, First aid, UK, Volunteering. 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.

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