First aid

Cardiac arrest or heart attack?

They’re both deadly, but would you know which was which in an emergency?

Of all the medical conditions, cardiac arrest and heart attacks are perhaps the best known and least understood. Here’s the problem:

1. Both can quickly prove fatal.
2. They each require radically different treatments.
3. Most people don’t know the difference between them.

To help explain things, let’s use a simple car analogy. Imagine you’re driving a car and the fuel pipe feeding petrol to the engine becomes blocked, leading the vehicle to splutter and not work properly. This, basically, is a heart attack. More

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First aid belongs at work

Given an impending change to British law, Joe Mulligan, our head of first aid education, argues that first aid training in the workplace is more important than ever.

The times are indeed a-changin’. Traditionally, any organisation wanting to provide first aid training in workplaces has had to first get approval from the Health & Safety Executive (HSE).

But it now looks likely that, in October, the government will rubber-stamp a new law that means employers will be free to choose any first aid training company they like. More

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French students in stomach bug outbreak

Volunteers respond to help French students

Zut alors! Red Cross volunteers are used to responding to all kinds of crises – but even they raised their eyebrows last night after being called out to help two coachloads of French students hit by a virulent stomach bug.

Yesterday evening, around 90 exchange students from France rolled up at Warwick Hospital in two coaches. Around a third of them were quite poorly – four had to be admitted to the children’s ward – and the rest camped out on the coaches.

Given the infectious nature of the mass ailment, hospital staff sensibly opted to house les etudiants in a secluded area away from the main hospital building.

They also called the Red Cross, who immediately raced out to set up 90 camp-beds and provide loads of blankets, inflatable pillows and hygiene packs. Four volunteers with enhanced first aid training also went along to help the hospital staff.

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First aid volunteers in Syria: “It’s a wonderful thing to save someone’s life”

 

Volunteering with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent is a commitment. Shifts are long, and the work is hard and dangerous. Most of the Red Crescent’s first aid volunteers are in their 20s, and many are juggling university studies along with their duties.

Volunteers are trained by the Red Crescent for a year before they are qualified to join a first aid unit. Despite the conflict, the Red Crescent has been able to continue recruiting and training first aid and psychosocial support volunteers.

Although their job is often a dangerous one, volunteers speak about their work with passion and dedication.

Donate to the Syria Crisis Appeal

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‘Volunteering helped me find a job’

London emergency response volunteer Cristina Dalton

London emergency response volunteer Cristina Dalton

Not only does Cristina Dalton get a huge amount of satisfaction from being a Red Cross volunteer – it’s also helped land her a good job.

Cristina, a London-based emergency response volunteer for almost three years, is by now an old hand at helping people in crisis. Many is the time she’s turned out following a fire or power cut, to help set up a rest centre or offer medical support.

So when Kingston Council recently advertised for an emergency planning officer, she literally ticked every box and seemed an obvious choice.

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The Twilight Zone first aiders

Hero first aiders: Becky Heath and Dom Potter

Now, as much as this tale sounds like something out of spooky sci-fi series The Twilight Zone, I assure you it’s all true. Here’s what happened.

One day recently, charity worker Becky Heath walked into bustling Kentish Town tube station in London and spotted an injured lady in her sixties sprawled on the ground. Becky, who has done first aid training with the Red Cross, went over to help the station manager attending her.

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