As most parents know you are not just a parent…..no no no to those little cherubs you are also a cook, a taxi, a counsellor, a teacher, a handyman and a diplomatic envoy even the biggest super powers would envy just to name but a few roles.
The scariest job you will inevitably have to perform is that of the “Parental Paramedic”. It happens to the best of us, you turn your back for just a second and that is when the impossible happens. That triple backflip from the top bunk or the death defying slide down the stairs.
You find yourself saying those immortal phrases that your parents bestowed on you. “Don’t come running to me when you break your leg” or “you will poke your eye out if your not careful”
Suddenly cherub is there holding a wrist that’s swelling before your eyes, or that brand new white top looks like something from the exorcist covered in blood from a cut head or nose bleed, you hear screaming after they touch the hot pan you thought was totally out of reach.
More than likely most of your families emergencies will be pretty minor. But it doesn’t hurt to be prepared for the bigger problems, “just in case” is important.
You don’t actually need to have medical training, a little bit of knowledge goes a long way. What you do need to know is how to recognize the serious and what to do.
Over the next few days we will be posting some tips on what to do should something happen….join our group to find out what you can do
On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to meeeee.
A blue inhaler to help me breeeeathe.
here we are as promised the first of the 12 first aid tips of Christmas. Mr Jingles has been working hard to help you enjoy the Christmas period, but should something happen you will know how to help.
He Has discovered from Asthma UK Asthma sufferers are being encouraged to wear a scarf over their nose and mouth to prevent asthma attacks this winter.
Breathing in cold, damp air can make the airways tighten and trigger an attack in three out of four people, charity Asthma UK says. This can leave people coughing, wheezing and gasping for breath. The charity’s #Scarfie campaign says “a scarf can save a life” but it’s not a replacement for asthma medicines.
What is Asthma
Asthma is a long-term condition that affects your airways – the tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs. You could say that someone with asthma has ‘sensitive’ airways that are inflamed and ready to react when they come into contact with something they don’t like.
Asthma tends to run in families, especially when there’s also a history of allergies and/or smoking
.
how can you recognise it?
The person will have difficulty in breathing
Breathing may sound wheezy.
they may have difficulty speaking (will need to take a breath in the middle of a sentence).
Pale, Clammy skin.
Grey or Blue lips and skin (if the attack is severe).
use of extra muscles in the neck and upper chest when breathing.
Exhaustion in a severe attack.
may become unconscious and stop breathing in a prolonged attack.
How do i help treat them
Sit them upright, leaning on a chair or table may help support them
help the person to use their reliever (blue) inhaler. use every couple of minutes if the attack does not ease.
Winter time is especially difficult as cold air can make the attack worse, try not to take them out in the cold air.
TOP TIP if you have to go outside use a scarf wrapped round the nose and mouth loosely as this will help warm the air being inhaled.
CALL 999/112 if the patient does not have their inhaler or it is not having an effect.
Try and keep the patient upright – only lay them down if they become unconscious.
If they stop breathing IMMEDIATELY START CPR – Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation.
Mr Jingles hopes this goes some way to help you and hopes you will be back tomorrow to find out how else you can help if the need arises.
It is something most of us do as part of being an adult. We wake up, we get dressed, then we do the workplace rally.
Yes you know the one, its that time in the morning when we delay leaving for work for as long as possible before we kiss our loved ones goodbye and race out the door to work. What ever way you leave the house we all expect to come home in one safe piece and carry on with our lives, no one expects it to be any different. Take a little look at the following video.
OK it is a little extreme but shows what can happen when safety nets are not in place and people are not concentrating on what is happening. This is WHEN incidents happen, this is when people either get seriously life changing injuries or worse DIE.
according to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) IN 2015 – 2016 144 (fig 1) workers were killed at work
Fig1
and approximately 622,000 (fig 2) received non fatal injuries.
Fig2
These are scary numbers, even worse is that although the numbers are decreasing the types of accidents that are occurring are continuously similar. Although it is agreed that “accidents” do happen most of the incidents that are occurring are generally a fault on a human level IE corners cut, safety measures circumnavigated or inadequate training.
Would you have confidence in the first aid skills your staff have, can they cope with being first on scene and managing patients with potentially life threatening injuries. Would you be confident that your employees would be able to cope with and confidently manage the scene.
First aid training is much more than just “passing” a course it’s having the responsibility of someone else’s loved one, the life of a colleague in your hands. It’s having the right skills, knowledge and confidence to manage the scene.
Kbt can can give you these skills. All our instructors are from an emergency service background. We have been there. Let us give your staff the training they really need.
Summer is here and that means 6 glorious weeks of YOU trying EVERYTHING in your power as a parent to stop your little bundle of joy from getting bored. Because if they get bored, they get mischievous. If they get mischievous things get broken and that includes bones.
So firstly let’s look at the terminology and cover one of the most commonly asked questions. What is the difference between a FRACTURE and a BREAK? Well you will be pleased to know there is no difference at all. They both mean the same thing, it seems that doctors like to use the term fracture to come across more educated when in fact they are one in the same. If a bone has a crack in it it is broken, if it is shattered into lots of pieces it is still broken. Those most at risk of broken bones are children and the elderly due to the frailty of the bone at these ages.
I’m sure you have watched the TV and all the medical programmes like Casualty or Holby City. Have you ever wondered “what the hell does that mean” as the Paramedics , Doctors and nurses are babbling on, well here is a little insight into the types of broken bones you can come across.
Closed Fracture
A closed fracture is when your bone breaks or cracks, but it doesn’t break through your skin.
Open fracture
An open fracture (also called compound fracture) is when a broken bone breaks through your skin. These are more serious because you might develop an infection in the bone and wound.
Comminuted Fracture
A comminuted fracture is where your bone breaks into three or more pieces.
Green Stick
Most common for children is a green stick fracture this is where your bone breaks on one side but is bent on the other. Only children get these fractures because they have softer bones.
What causes bones to break?
You have over 200 bones in your body that make up your skeleton. That is a massive choice to break. Thankfully they are generally quite strong however sometimes due to genetic reasons, age or a traumatic event the integrity of your bone is compromised and it breaks.
How do we recognise a broken bone? LIP DUST (signs & symptoms of a fracture)
Loss of movement
Irregularity
Pain
Deformity
Unnatural Movement
Swelling & Bruising
Tenderness
What to do?
It can be difficult to tell if a person has a broken bone. Some sprains or strains can be as painful if not more so than a broken bone If you’re in any doubt, treat the injury as a broken bone.
Always remember.
Danger – to you and the patient
Response – awake or unconscious?
Airway – is it clear?
Breathing – are they breathing?
Circulation – Control any bleeding.
If the person is unconscious, has difficulty breathing or is bleeding severely, these are life threatening and must be dealt with first, by controlling the bleeding with direct pressure and performing CPR.
If the person is conscious, prevent any further pain or damage by keeping the fracture as still as possible until you get them safely to hospital.
Assess the injury and decide whether the best way to get them to hospital is by ambulance or car. if the pain isn’t too severe, you could consider transporting them to hospital by car. get someone else to drive, so that you can deal with the casualty if they deteriorate – for example, if they lose consciousness as a result of the pain or start to vomit.
Things to consider and if necessary call 999 for an ambulance.
• they’re in a lot of pain and in need of strong painkilling medication, don’t move them and call an ambulance
• it’s obvious they have a broken leg, don’t move them, but keep them in the position you found them in and call an ambulance
• you suspect they have injured or broken their back, don’t move them and call an ambulance
Don’t give the casualty anything to eat or drink, because they may need emergency surgery to fix the break when they reach hospital.
Ok so all the boring stuff is out of the way here is a video NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED.
Once you have watched this you will be more than competent in recognising broke bones and also for those of you with boys will probably never let them out again.
Heart attack!!!! Those two words fill people with Fear. As soon as people hear heart attack immediately they think of death. Quite rightly because if you do not recognise the symptoms it can rapidly lead to a cardiac arrest.
What is the difference between a heart attack and cardiac arrest?
a popular misconception is that they are one in the same. This is not true, whilst they are linked they are also two different entities.
Heart Attack
A heart attack happens when there is a narrowing/blockage in the arteries supplying blood to the heart muscle itself. The heart like any other muscle in the body needs a good supply of oxygen rich blood to survive. If this flow is interrupted then the muscle cells start to die making the heart less efficient in pumping. Eventually if this is not rectified it will stop completely (cardiac arrest).
Cardiac Arrest
A cardiac arrest is time critical and immediately life threatening condition. It can be caused by a number of factors including drugs, trauma and heart attacks. A cardiac arrest is defined as the cessation of the heart pumping blood around the body.
Signs and symptoms of a Heart Attack.
Heart attack symptoms vary from one person to another. The most common signs of a heart attack are:
chest pain: tightness, heaviness, pain or a burning feeling in your chest
pain in arms, neck, jaw, back or stomach: for some people, the pain or tightness is severe, while other people just feel uncomfortable
sweating
feeling light-headed
become short of breath
feeling nauseous or vomiting.
grey looking skin
clammy
these symptoms are not exhaustive and if you suspect someone is having a heart attack you need to ring 999 for an ambulance.
Treatment
Call 999 or 112 for an ambulance and tell them you think someone is having a heart attack.
Make the person comfortable,
help move them into the most comfortable position.
The best position is on the floor leaning against a wall with knees bent and head and shoulders supported.
This should ease the pressure on their heart and stop them hurting themselves if they collapse.
Give them a 300mg aspirin, if available make sure they are not allergic to it by asking them, and tell them to chew it slowly.
Be aware that they may become unresponsive and collapse before help arrives if this happens
If they lose responsiveness at any point, stay clam and open their airway, check their breathing, and prepare to treat someone who has become unresponsive. You may need to do CPR. Cardio-pulmonary resuscitation at a rate of 30 chest compressions to 2 breaths.
So today I was contacted by one of my students who completed her 3 day first aid at work course in February. Why did she contact me? Well I shall tell you. Today she had to put into practice her skills to help her partner who had decided it would probably be best to separate two frozen burgers with the biggest knife in the kitchen. Yes, I can hear you all now, fantastic idea and I am sure he will learn from this (we hope) 😂😂
So here we are sat at home and my loving partner decided to cook me dinner, when suddenly, all hell broke loose. Blood everywhere and a very worried and panicked looking man feeling a little dizzy and a little faint looking quite grey.
A quick check for danger, clearly responding and breathing (just it seemed as he dramatically Declared his upcoming demise).
A couple of rotations a quick costume change and I became his hero…..that’s right! he had no idea that the love of his life was also FIRST AID WONDER WOMAN.
So, First Aid Wonder Woman’s new skills kicked in (never did she think she would have to use them to save his life). She quickly sat him down and exposed the wound to examine it, assess the damage and get him to elevate it and put pressure on whilst she dipped into her First Aid Wonder bag and pull out a suitable in date sterile clean dressing to put on to keep it clean and try and stem the bleeding.
Once this was done First Aid Wonder Woman gently reassured her traumatised man, showed him care and empathy before treating him to a trip in the First Aid Wonder car
They raced down to her friends at the superhero center (commonly known as HOSPITAL). Whilst there they cared for him, fixed him and complimented First Aid Wonder Woman on her swift and expert treatment.
They returned home and now First Aid Wonder Woman cooks the burgers just to be on the safe side.
This shows that having the skills and knowledge can go a long way but more importantly the CONFIDENCE to do something is what counts. First Aid at Work training can be applied anywhere and with this knowledge my student said she felt empowered to take control, she “knew exactly what to do”
If they stop breathing IMMEDIATELY START CPR – Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation.
KBT FIRST AID TRAINING 