‘Excuse me sir, I’m from the train company and I’m doing some first aid training with my colleagues; would you mind being a victim? There’ll be some travel vouchers for you.’
‘No’ says the man behind me.’ The trainer approaches me and asks me the same question.
‘Sure’ I say.
‘OK, we’ve got one. What we’ll do if that’s all right is get off at the next station? There’s an office there.’ I agree to all this and the four of us head into a ticket office and up the stairs into an empty carpeted room. I take my jacket off and lie down on the floor and he begins his training.
‘Right, the first thing that you need to do when you spot an injured party is to get to them as quickly as you can.’
‘Hang on a minute’ I interrupt, ‘that’s not strictly true.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘Well, you’ve got to assess the situation first. It’s no good jumping down to help someone who’s unconscious on the rails if you don’t know what’s going on around you. Otherwise the next train turns up then splat. The next person that comes along has to deal with two victims. Never put yourself in danger; call the authorities first and listen to their advice.’
‘Good point. I’m now going to talk you through resuscitation. You open the casualty’s mouth then use your lips to create a seal’
‘Just a moment. You need to check the casualty’s airway first. Otherwise you’re putting yourself at risk again.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘Well, there could be anything in there. He could have taken some pills without swallowing all of them; there could be a piercing or some other nasty surprise; all of which that could be passed onto you.’
‘Are you a paramedic?’
‘No, I’m just trying to help. I used to be in the scouts.’
‘Would you like to take the course?’
‘Okay’. I take his notes and cover all his points in detail and I even have time to demonstrate the recovery position at the end. I’m now a full-time health and safety officer for the train company.
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