Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
We've been talking about CPR and first state, Do you
know what to do if you come across a situation
when somebody needs your assistance. A man who does know
what to do is Gareth Richards. He is a pre
hospital and retrieval medicine doctor with the Westpat Rescue helicopter
and he's just back from a job. No Lesson joins
us on the phone. Now, Gareth, very good afternoon to.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
You, saying thanks for having me along.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
Can you share any details of the job or is
that as that private?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
We went to see a young man who'd had an
excellent out on one of the islands in the Gulf
and with the help of his family managed to provide
him with some treatment and get him into startup hostible
all successfully to get some further management of that problem.
Very well, and we accept them to do very well.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Oh good on you mate, that's fantastic. Now we were
talking about CPR before, and we've talked about a bit,
but CPR is one thing. What did you do if
someone's bleeding?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Look if you can see bleeding. Then seeing where it's
coming from, then the simplest thing to do is to
put some pressure on it. And without making that sound simplistic,
it's what we teach people in all sorts of situations.
So whether it's an accident at the side of the road,
whether it's someone who's been involved in a terrorist incident
(01:35):
like we've talked about seen recently in the last twenty
four hours in Manchester in England, or if someone's injured
on the battlefield. The idea of simple pressure over a
bleeding point is a very very effective way of helping
control that bleeding until appropriate people can come and do
something of a greater degree of intervention. So some simple
(01:56):
pressure on it, even with fingers and thumbs and a
little bit of gauze or something similar, making sure that
you keep yourself safe at the same time, what's.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
The advice around corner caves ever worth trying to fashion
some sort of tornicue yourself or is that not really
the advice if you see someone who's bleeding.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
It's an instant question. Sough In the nineteen eighties, it
was something we used to see on when I was
growing up. It was something we used to see on
TV all the time, and then it went out of
fashion quite significantly, and it's come back into our clinical
practice with experience in the wars in places like Iraq
and Afghanistan that the simple thing to do for a
(02:36):
simple bleeding point is to put some pressure on it,
and the event of catastrophic bleeding, then a tornice is
something that we will use. There are downsides to it
in terms of blood supplied to the rest of that
limb and potentially causing injury, but it's something in our armentarium.
We'd encourage people in the first instance to just do
(02:58):
some nice direct pressure, nice and firm and see whether
that's enough to stop the bleeding.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
There is a reasonable chance Garris, that you know you
might come across someone with a stab wound. What should
you do if the stabber is still there? I mean,
that's a problem, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
It was interesting talking to listening to your previous caller.
Is this idea of people want to help, people want
to get involved, but it's really important that you maintain
your own safety in the first instance as well. If
you being there and intervening and helping simply makes you
another casualty, then that doesn't help you. It doesn't help
(03:39):
the person that you've tried to save, and it doesn't
help the emergency services that are coming to you. So
if we're going, if we're tasked to an incident like that,
then the police will clear that scene for us and
say that it is safe to go in and help
the people that need our help. If you're approaching that
as you're somebody walking down the street, or you're out
(04:00):
of the movies or out at the shopping center, then
making sure that you're safe in the first instance, and
calling for help from emergency services. So the sooner you
call for help, the sooner that help can be on
its way and helping to manage that situation.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Is there any advice at all? And this is probably
a tough thing to put on someone like yourself, so
just tell me if you don't want to answer the question,
But is there anything any words you should yell at
someone that has you know, stabbed someone or attacked someone
that that helped clear the scene? Is it helpful to
stand back and go get out if you leave them alone?
Speaker 3 (04:35):
You know?
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Is there words that can help in that kind of situation?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
I think that's so unpredictable, isn't it. You're trying to
understand the mental state and the motivation of the person
that we think has actually caused that injury in the
first place. I think that's very unpredictable. So my approach
to it would be trying to withdraw myself from that
scene to a safe distance, maybe keeping because the offender
(04:59):
and calling to help, trying to provide as much information
as possible to the emergency service call that you're getting
in touch with, but maintaining your own safe he is
really key here. We don't want you to be hurt.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
As part of this, we're speaking to Gareth Richards. He
is a pre hospital and retrieval medicine doctors with the
whe's pat Rescue helicopter. Gareth, say, you come across a
traffic accident and clearly you've got some skills there that
you can assist. I mean, is it not quite a
similar thing. But that idea of taking that leadership approach
and trying to manage what is going on around you
(05:33):
when you've got those skills, is that something that needs
to be taught as well.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
I think there's a great opportunity there, isn't there. So
we've got a number of programs on television of pre
hospital paramedic and helicopter responses. If someone's sitting at home
and there watching those things on TV, there's an opportunity
to have a think about how you might approach it
if you came upon a scene like that, because that's
(05:58):
the way it evolves. You're driving down the road, you
see a car cranch. The approach is the same is
we want you to be saved. So the first thing
is to stop, take a breath, and just get your
head together to check that there's no danger to you specifically,
so things like power lines that are down, things like
fuel leaks that may ignite around flot engines, for example,
(06:20):
those things that are going to put you at danger
oncoming traffic, so making sure that your car is protecting
you from oncoming traffic, for example, identifying what they're the
problem is, so who are the people that are injured,
what are the number of those people, and then calling
for help. Again this idea of getting emergency services activated
(06:41):
early so that people can come to you. And if
those are the first things that you can do and
make sure everyone else is safe at the same time,
then that response is already well underway. To help the
people that are injured, and then we get into the
ABC type approach of that we can talk about for
resuscitation in CPR. And you may have covered already.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
What about burns? What should do if you come across
some with burns while you're waiting for other help to come.
What's the current thinking on that.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yeah, it's a horrible idea that that terrible injuries are
really confronting. They can be enormously painful for the people
that the person that's been burnt again, the same same
general approach, So is it safe to be involved? Who
are the number of casualties? What sort of response are
they able to give? You? Making sure helps on the way.
(07:34):
We provide often some fairly simple interventions for burn victims
when we're transporting them, so will give them, We'll do
our resuscitation component, We'll add some pain relision. Simple things
might be wrapping something like some glad wrap around the
burns as well to seal them off from the air.
Not too tight, we don't want to affect the circulation
(07:54):
to those limbs. But simple glad wrap is a surprising
piece of first aid that we use, even on the helicopter.
There are lots of different burns, creams and dressings as well,
but we like to keep things simple.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Yeah, you probably recommend people to have a decent first
aid kit in their car and in their house, I imagine.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Gareth again, I think it's enormously useful. So the having
the equipment, having an idea of how to use them,
so that there's lots of different first aid courses that
are taught so John offers them. There are private providers
a first first aid courses. Having an idea of what's
in your kit. It doesn't have to be all the
bells and whistles, so just some simple things, like we said,
(08:36):
maybe some gloves to protect you, to be able to
stop some bleeding, an idea of how to do the CPR,
some simple first aid intervensions, and maybe some simple pain relief,
and knowing where that is and how to access this,
and what's in your kit, making sure that it's up
to date and that you know how to use the
things that are in there. It's better to be able
(08:56):
to use a small number of things effectively than to
have a whole bunch of things in your first aid
kit that you don't really.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
Know what to do with a couple of texts coming
through here, What about choking? Can you ask them about choking.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Taking yep. So again depends a little bit on the
injury or what's the cause. But the approach again would
be this very simple structured approach. So is there any
danger to you? Is the patient responding? If not, then
I'm calling for help. I'm getting those emergency services along
the way. Some simple airway maneuvers would be to check
(09:30):
inside the mouse and make sure there's nothing that's including
the breathing unresponsive. Can you get to get the whatever's
in their mouth or the upper part of their throat
out of the way. Does that help? And if they're
not responding still, then we go down this pathway of
the ABC type approach. I'm managing the airways, starting to
do some supportive breathing and doing some CPR. Brilliant.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Well, thank you so much, Gareth and you guys do
fantastic work. And there's a bunch of people just texting
through thanking you for the great work you do at
the WHISTPEC Rescue helicopter.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
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