First Aid Training Course

Eleven HiAM members recently attended a one day First Aid Training course, focussing on Catastrophic Blood Loss, at The Lodge, Inverness.

The course, which was delivered by Paul Wilson, was fascinating and really informative. It had a good balance of class room theory – supported by some pretty graphic slides - and practical exercises. We all had the opportunity to practice packing deep wounds with haemostatic dressings –fortunately only on teaching aids!  We even practised putting a tourniquet on ourselves – and found out how painful a tourniquet is.

The participants and Paul, third from the left, kneeling.

One key point Paul emphasised was the need for speed when treating a patient with a catastrophic bleed as it can take only 3 to 4 minutes to prove fatal, so you have to act quickly and if you don’t have the ideal equipment to hand, improvise.

Another very useful exercise we practised was how to safely remove a crash helmet from an injured rider – special thanks to Fiona for “volunteering” to be the guinea pig!

Fiona having her helmet removed – safely!

It was a very interesting and worthwhile course which helped all attendees raise their knowledge of first aid.  

Thanks again to Paul for delivering such a good, informative session – the lunch was good too!