Sunday 19 August 2007

First Aid on Anguilla



Yesterday was a very interesting day.

A friend of mine, Sheryl, and I took the St John Ambulance of Canada Emergency First Aid with Adult CPR Course.

In an intense day of learning we trained in the core competences of Emergency Scene Management, how to administer first aid to people who are in shock, unconscious, choking, bleeding or having cardiovascular emergencies. We learnt about medical conditions such as diabetes, asthma and allergies, together with wound care and first aid for burns.

The course was hands on from the first and, after watching an instructional film for each section of the course, we were invited to try out the techniques we had been shown. This was both useful and fun – Sheryl and I know each other very well now after checking each other for injuries from head to toe and practising our bandaging techniques on each other!

Our course instructor, Peter Quinn, a veteran of the Fort McMurray Fire Service in Canada, where he was an Emergency Medical Technician, has been teaching for St John Ambulance of Canada for fifteen years. He was both knowledgeable and patient while leading us through the course and professional when he administered the course examination at the end of the day.

By this time we were both exhausted!
When we passed we were very pleased to say the least! It was a lot to assimilate in a single day, but the sense of achievement was worth the effort. We are now both qualified to render Emergency First Aid for the next three years and CPR for the next year.

The photograph shows Sheryl after I had put her in the Recovery Position. I think she was quite pleased to be resting after the long day!

Peter Quinn can be reached on peterfquinn@caribcable.com

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