Basic instructions

[luckykaa]

What to do when you see some guy lying on the street in the rain.

Step 1: Dither a bit and hope that someone else will deal with it
Step 2: Realise that everybody else has gone for step 1 and ended there so walk over to the guy and try to rouse him. 
It is possible that he will be roused.  If not then go to step 3
Step 3: Check he's still breathing.  Try and find a pulse.  Shake him gently. 
Step 4: Call an ambulance (The number is 112 works in most places I'm a traditionalist so I went with 999*) .  The nice lady (or gentleman) on the other end of the phone has some basic medical training and can tell you what to do.  
Step 5: Wait for the ambulance to arrive.  This isn't going to take too long.  Once they are there they can deal with the situation better than you.
END

In hindsight, I should probably have skipped step 1. But I'm only human.
No idea what I'd do in step 3 if there was no pulse/breathing. 
I really should get off my arse and learn some emergency first aid.  I need to be free when there's a course and to work out which course I want to do.  Given that I do LARP and Cons and things, an actual qualification might be useful.
There does seem to be this social convention that nobody else is doing anything so everyone else goes along with it.  Damn herd mentality.
I seem to feel this sense of guilt that I've breached some sort of social convention.
I was told by the 999 person to put him on his back.  This seemed odd.  Isn't the recovery position the right thing to do here?

I think most people assumed he was homeless and drunk or on drugs or something.  Thinking about it though, he could easily have been diabetic or something (although didn't seem to sweating, which I think is what you expect).  He hadn't been sick or anything.  His clothes weren't exactly pristine but nor were they rags.

*Alternatively try 0118 999 881 999 119 725 3 - we're not just the emergency service.  We're your emergency service.

Comments

[cath-er-ine.livejournal.com]

Well done you hero :)

[luckykaa.livejournal.com]

Thanks, but not really after praise - all I did was call the ambulance and passed the problem on to someone who can actually deal with it:)

Various other complex reasons for posting.

[cath-er-ine.livejournal.com]

Nevertheless you will have to live with my opinion :P

[omylouse.livejournal.com]

Which is entirely the correct thing to do! :)

Did they give any indication of what was wrong with him?

No idea what I'd do in step 3 if there was no pulse/breathing.

Exactly they same thing thing - dial 999 :)
(& possibly freak out a little!)

To be honest I'm glad I know enough to save a life if it came down to it but I wouldn't start mouth-to-mouth on a random stranger I found unconcious on the streets as there is a risk of hiv/aids/any other nasty infection etc. If I saw someone collapsed or there were people who had seen it that is another matter... by then you run into legal trickery if they don't recover or you crack a a rib with CPR or something. Seriously, it sounds like more trouble than it's worth sometimes!

If you do a course go for St Johns. The original & best! :)

[luckykaa.livejournal.com]

Do you know anything about the various course? I had a look. There are the basic general public ones; but that seems to be about emergency first aid (presumably CPR and recovery position stuff which I can probably remember from school), or cuts and scrapes which I can deal with.

Would the full 3 day certified training course be worth doing?

Oh and do you know what the deal was with putting the guy on his back?

[ghostpaw.livejournal.com]

I did the three day St John's Ambulance one (officially for work, but with an eye on larp and fencing) and it is definitely worth the money if you can afford it. Also, SJA insure you, so if you were to do CPR and crack his rib and he tried to sue* they'd have your back.

I don't know why they'd tell you to put him on his back, though, that's actually quite dangerous (particularly if he was already on his front and you could rearrange him into the recovery position). Choking on anything aside, lying on your back it's easier for your chin to come towards your chest and compress your airway.

*this happens less than the Daily Fail makes out, most people are pathetically grateful not to be dead.

[omylouse.livejournal.com]

Agreeing with ghostpaw. Should only be on their back if you need to perform CPR really. Or shock - on back, raise leg.) Other reasons I can think of involve dealing with bleeding....

Although from my time in St John we did get storying about people getting shirty about cracked/bruised ribs, We were also taught if the casualty is wearing glasses put them somewhere safe as they have had complaints about broken/scratched glasses! It was a small percentage of treatments though.

[penguin-worship.livejournal.com]

There's a whole variety of first aid courses out there - really depends what you want to do with it which one is right for you. We run a 1 dayer on the Clarity/Christian aid trainings -usually the day before IDP camp, which focuses on emergency first aid, with a bit of a hostile environments focus - i might be able to swing you a free place if you were acting the next day.

[luckykaa.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind.