Red Cross Blogs

Posts tagged ‘First aid’

---

There’s an interesting article running on the BBC website at the moment, all dog owners could soon have to insure their dog against attacking people. I can see it now – comparethepoodle.com, for courageous poodles. Maybe not.

Joking aside, whilst reading the article a shocking fact jumped out at me – “Each week, more than 100 people are admitted to hospital after dog attacks.” I certainly never realised dog bites were so common. I’ve personally only seen one dog bite in my first aid career (and that was from a police dog – a story for another blog post I think…)

Luckily though, there’s some handy first aid knowledge that can help you out if you ever encounter a dog bite.

Dog bites can cause quite deep puncture wounds to the skin. One of the biggest risks is from germs and infection. Perhaps the most well known infection is rabies, a serious disease affecting the nervous system. Luckily for us, the last known case of rabies in the UK was over a century ago. However, if you travel to other countries where rabies is present you need to be aware of this risk! Worldwide there are an estimated 55,000 cases of rabies a year.*

In the event of someone suffering a dog bite, you can do the following things:

• Thoroughly wash the bite and the area around it with warm soapy water. This is to reduce the risk of infection.
• Pat dry the wound with sterile gauze swabs.
• Cover the wound with a sterile dressing.
• Seek medical advice promptly, if you can then try and identify the animal.

If there is severe bleeding, then elevate the wound and apply direct pressure to control the bleeding. You can find out more about major bleeding on the British Red Cross website. If you suspect the casualty is suffering from shock then do not delay in calling an ambulance.

Remember your personal safety comes first – if there’s a rabid dog running around then I’d suggest calling someone to deal with it first. Someone far braver than me.

* Statistics from the Health Protection Agency

Comment on this post »

---

---

---

If someone gashed their arm, I’m guessing you probably wouldn’t stuff jam into the wound. And yet every year, lots of people apply butter – yes, that yellow creamy stuff you put on bread – onto burn injuries.

In terms of bonkers first aid behaviour, it’s right up there with blood-letting and ducking someone to see if they’re infected by evil spirits. And yet, incredibly, it’s still quite a popular first aid myth.

You know when you lavish the Lurpak on a toasted crumpet and all the butter bubbles and melts and starts seeping in? Well, that’s exactly what happens when you do the same to someone’s skin. It can be really damaging – and excruciating to get off again (especially if they’re also trying to spoon out all that jam from your gashed arm).

Office worker Michael Brown recently helped a workmate who had scalded her arm with piping hot tea. Thanks to his Red Cross training at work, he knew exactly what to do: run her arm under cold running water then cover the affected area to prevent infection. However, he was slightly taken aback by how helpless – even clueless – most people around him seemed.

He recalled: “It was alarming that most of my colleagues, who were understandably distressed, wanted to soak her arm in warm water [which would not cool the injury as required] and didn’t want the burn to be covered.”

When the woman was later treated for a second degree burn at hospital, the doctors said Michael’s speedy first aid actions had really helped, but without him things could easily have gone the other way.

As he put it: “This is another classic example of people thinking they should do the opposite of what should actually be done.”

Incidentally, while researching this blog I came across a website about medieval first aid. It makes for scary reading, as the following extract shows: “Some cures – such as one that involved bathing in water in which blind puppies had been boiled to death – defy modern explanation.” Ouch.

Unsurprisingly, it concludes: “Medieval medicine had a low success rate.”

Comment on this post »

---

---

---

Woohoooooo would have believed it? Red Cross volunteers were recently put on standby at the Liverpool Playhouse Theatre when it was feared a super-scary show might cause people to take a funny turn.

Ghost Stories, which ‘contains moments of extreme shock and tension’, had them screaming in the aisles so much the Red Cross was brought in as a precaution. Suddenly, punters expecting to encounter things that go bump in the night instead found themselves bumping into volunteers carrying first aid kits and wearing bright yellow, hi-vis vests – in itself not altogether a calming sight.

Hilariously, having all those first aiders stomping around actually spooked some theatregoers even more. Ruth Brooke told the Liverpool Echo: “I asked the lady beside me what she was doing in uniform. She told me she’d been placed in the audience in case anybody needed medical treatment as the show was quite frightening.

“Her saying that actually made me feel more nervous and apprehensive.” Er, quite.

Still, having the volunteers there did mean quick help would be at hand if anyone needed resuscitation, shock or heart attack treatment.

The theatre’s spokesman happily stirred up the paranoia even further, saying: “We strongly advised those of a nervous disposition to think very seriously before attending this show, and felt it appropriate to enlist the aid of the Red Cross during the first few performances.”

Whether he also thought it had been a great wheeze to drum up some free publicity for the show, he didn’t say.

But it all shows that Red Cross volunteers are undaunted by any request. Wherever they think there may be a reasonable chance of people facing danger, they’ll step in. Come rain, snow, crowds, floods – and even, it now turns out, ghosts – you can always count on them.

Comment on this post »

---

---

---

Apparently, when they talk about ‘dangerous dogs’ in America, they’re having a completely different conversation.

In a blaze of publicity, the American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a policy statement announcing that the tubular-shaped hot dog can present a ‘major choking hazard’ for young children. You don’t say.

Not content with stating the obvious and dissing the dog, the AAP has also put many other foods – including peanuts, whole grapes, raw carrots and apples – in the dock as ‘high-risk foods’ for unsupervised children.

Their suggestion is to ‘redesign’ the hot dog so it will be less likely to present a danger. However, this has met with short shrift from Janet Riley, President of the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council. (And how cool a job title is that? It’s only a short skip away from Chief of Cheese Waffles or Emperor of Doughnuts.)

Barely hiding her contempt, chipolata champion Janet retorted: “As a mother who fed my own toddlers cylindrical foods – like grapes, bananas, hot dogs and carrots – I ‘redesigned’ them in my kitchen by cutting them with a paring knife until my children were old enough to manage on their own.”

But all this ire and sausage-flinging points towards a very sombre fact: thousands of parents and carers wouldn’t have a clue what to do if a young child or baby started choking. In such a scenario, it’s only a matter of minutes before permanent brain damage and death occur – and too many children die each year in these circumstances.

However, the good news is that it’s very easy to get clued up on what to do. Visit our choking tips webpage or special children’s first aid website – or, even better, go the whole hog and sign up for a first aid training course. And once you done that, treat yourself to a hot dog. But be careful.

Comment on this post »

---

---

---

People can have a heart attack anywhere – and that’s why you’ll find defibrillators in all kinds of publicly used venues these days: shopping malls, sports clubs, brothels. Hang on, brothels?

Well, yes. In Switzerland, sex workers at several brothels are being trained to use defibrillators in order to prevent clients with heart problems dying on them. The move follows a recent spate of incidents – some fatal – where mainly elderly customers found the services on offer a little too demanding.

Heart attacks have now claimed several customers in the Lugano area, and local health experts are backing the move to stock defibrillators in sex clubs and brothels. And as one brothel owner put it: “Having customers die on us isn’t exactly good publicity.”

Modern defibrillators are relatively quick and easy for the lay person to use, and in an emergency can mean the difference between life and death. Having said that, there’s nothing better than knowing what to do if someone has a heart attack.

As a Red Cross writer, I come across literally scores of stories every year where someone having just a little first aid knowledge ends up saving someone’s life. So why not sign up for a first aid course or even just get some tips online? One day you might be might glad you did.

Comment on this post »

---

---

---

It was like an episode of Soldier, Soldier and Casualty melded into one. A group of young army cadets in Leek recently transformed into uber-medics when one of their number was hit by a car.

As teenager Kirsty Alcock  lay howling on the floor with a car-tyre track over her right foot, her five friends sprang into action. They took off her shoes, kept her calm, called for an ambulance, ran for blankets, directed traffic and even scribbled down notes at the scene.

But how did our intrepid heroes manage to respond so efficiently and professionally? Easy: they’d all taken a Red Cross first aid course at school just weeks earlier. As one of the young cadets, Tim (15) put it: “Our first aid training kicked in immediately. We just all seemed to know what to do.”

A new government Bill will hopefully make it law for schools to teach first aid as part of the national curriculum. It will next be debated by MPs on 23 February – and your support can help make it happen.

Want to help make first aid in schools a reality? It only takes a minute – here’s what you do.

1. Visit the WriteToThem website and enter your postcode to find your local MP.
2. Click on your local Member of Parliament.
3. Fill in your personal details, then paste the pre-written text (provided below) into the message box.
4. Email your MP.

Re: Children, Schools and Families Bill 2009

I am writing to you regarding the Children, Schools and Families Bill as it contains a proposal to make first aid training – within PSHE – a statutory part of the national curriculum.

First aid saves lives, reduces the impact of serious injury and can play a significant role in reducing the burden on the healthcare system. It should play a central role in any preventative health education programme. This is particularly pressing as more than half of the 5.5 million attendees at accident and emergency departments could have benefited from first aid.

For example, more than 100 young people (aged under 15) attend accident and emergency departments every day in the UK with a scald or burn injury. Such injuries are quite easy to treat and benefit greatly from imediate attention, but sadly most people lack the necessary basic skills.

The importance of basic first aid training makes the inclusion of statutory first aid training in the bill a welcome step forward. I am aware that there is a small window of opportunity for this Bill to become law before an expected General Election. As such I would urge you to support the Bill in the upcoming report stage on the 23 February.

Yours sincerely,

(Insert your name)

Comment on this post »

---

---

---

Forget about Brad Pitt – move over, Megan Fox. According to our very scientific research*, it appears the key to having a really successful and sizzling Valentine’s Day is getting your paws on a Red Cross volunteer. Rawwr!

Not convinced? Then just take a look at the following nuggets of evidence, which clearly demonstrate how having a Red Cross volunteer as the special man or woman in your life will unfailingly spell out romantic bliss:

Good with money
With half the country drowning in debt and maxed-out credit cards, Red Cross fundraising volunteers regularly start a day with nothing in their pockets, then – by virtue of shaking a bucket or bathing in baked beans – end up with hundreds of pounds.

Fabulous mouth to mouth
Lots of people rate themselves as good kissers, but how many other people do you know who would spend hours practising on a plastic dummy to perfect their technique?

Magical massage
Pity the masses who, asking their partners for a nice romantic Valentine massage, either get tickled to distraction or painfully kneaded like a human-sized piece of bread dough. Therapeutic care volunteers are carefully trained to provide the perfect soothing massage – and those pesky keep-clothes-on and no-baby-oil rules don’t apply in a domestic setting.

Sensible shoppers
Many men fear their partner’s return from the clothes shops, anticipating the filled bags and empty purse. Not so the lucky chap who lands a Red Cross retail volunteer. Despite helping to raise millions each year, she knows all about value and spotting a bargain – and can be trusted not to trouble the haute couture boutiques too regularly.

Not couch potatoes
Many women resent being sports widows, silently fuming while their loved one sprawls on the sofa scratching his backside and watching hours of football on the telly. However, event first aid volunteers generally get their sports fix by actually attending the fixtures. And that means their spouse gets the sofa, telly and fridge contents all to themselves for a relaxing afternoon. Cheers!

Brilliant detectives
The one fly in the ointment, unfortunately. No matter how hard you might try to lose your parents-in-law, any half-decent Red Cross volunteer with links to the tracing and message service will always be able to find them again.

So, we hope you agree, on the whole the case is irrefutable. Brad can keep his washboard stomach muscles and Megan is welcome to her, ahem, assets. If you want a truly special Valentine’s Day, make sure you spend it with a Red Cross volunteer.

*We asked four people in the office

Comment on this post »

---

---

---

On Valentine’s Day, first aid might not be at the forefront of your mind, but why not find out how you could mend a broken heart? Basic first aid knowledge could help you save a loved one and give them the best present they have ever had.

Just a small amount of know-how could make a huge difference…

How to mend a broken heart.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Transcript:

Read the rest of this post »

Comment on this post »

---

---

---

The UK’s extended cold snap has provided the perfect excuse to go home, sink into the sofa and get glued to some cockle-warming telly.

I was quite excited about the new series of Dancing on Ice. It’s great to see celebrities performing out of their comfort zone. Of course, triple toe loops and over-the-top costumes aside, skating is also associated with tumbles.

Heather Mills, one of the celebrities involved, was reeling off the injuries she’d incurred from her training a few weeks back: she’s snapped one rib, fractured another, torn muscles in her shoulder and injured her pelvis. It’s definitely not a sport for the faint-hearted.

At least one of her fellow skaters – a recently qualified first aider – is close at hand should contestants take a tumble.  Daniel Whiston, a professional ice skater currently wowing the crowds in the hit ITV series, is Hayley Tamaddon’s partner. And she’s in safe hands as he completed a day-long Red Cross basic first aid course recently.

He told us: “As a coach as well as a skater, it’s really important that I’m able to help people if they hurt themselves. I really enjoyed the course and will definitely be renewing my certificate when it expires.”

Even if you don’t plan on strapping some skates on any time soon, you can learn vital first aid skills from our online first aid resources and practical courses.

Comment on this post »

---

---

---

It’s 1 February. You’ve already broken your new year’s resolutions and you’ve got an over-whelming desire to make a difference.

I’ve got the perfect solution to all these problems. This year, join me as a Red Cross volunteer!

Watch this video. It’s only 42 seconds long and it’s quite an eye-opener.

See – there’s loads of ways you could help! And it doesn’t have to take up a lot of your time. I volunteer when it suits me – in the evenings, and weekends. The fact is you can help as little or as much as you like, when it suits you.

Ever fancied working behind a till? Become a charity shop volunteer. Want to help fund our life-saving work? Try your hand as a fundraiser. Like to help people in crisis? Become an emergency response volunteer.

A little of your time really will make a big difference to us. Go on – become a Red Cross volunteer.

Comment on this post »

---

---