One of the more serious prospects about the trip to Tanzania is how we would deal with situations where we would need to use our First Aid Training and so we gathered first in the barn to discuss and practice the recovery position which could only be used if the casualty was breathing.
We established that the First Aider should place the arm nearest them at a right angle pointing upwards while the back of the other hand is touching their cheek. The leg furthest away is then bent at a right angle. The casualty is then rolled over so that the leg and arm at a right angle are able to support their entire weight. We were able to practice this on one another for a short time and, generally speaking, we all pretty much remembered what we had to do.
After a short while we were all told that we had to practice on the leaders and that they would be unconscious outside! Our aim was to make sure that they were safe but we didn’t know exactly what was wrong.
We went out and found the leaders in very odd positions; lying in their front, upside down on a hill etc. We discovered for the most part that we had to place them into the recovery position but in many cases the leader would not have survived! We then discussed what went wrong and what we should have done to make sure that the causality would have survived.
The final task we had to do was more complicated and involved not just dealing with an unconscious causality; there were a collection of different problems depending on the leader that we had to fix and some that required more common sense than previous knowledge. One was suffering from diabetes related problems, some unconscious and one with a broken arm. Some of us had better luck on the second attempt though I think it’s safe to say that some of us, especially myself, still need a bit more practice! Again we talked about things that went wrong and how we could and should have dealt with them.
Matthew
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