First Aid in the Home

During the school holidays I attended a first aid course for work and as part of this course I had some pre-reading to do as well as answer a booklet full of multiple choice questions before attending the one day course. I saw this as a great way to brush up on my first aid skills as well as have a fun day with the ladies from work, but what I didn’t realise was how much first aid comes down to common sense.

Going through the booklet with my hubby we had to laugh at some of the questions.

“Calling for help”
Which number would you call from a home phone when needing help from emergency services?

000 911 123

Now I’m no genius but how could someone seriously get this wrong? Or think that it would be ok to give an unconscious person a drink of water? Or walk them around to wake them up? Hubby and I had plenty of laughs while I was filling out the booklet and plenty of ‘discussions’ also, being from a medical background hubby insisted I was taking things too literally and not reading between the lines when asked: True/False, you can immerse a casualty’s cold hand into hot water to reheat it? My answer was true, you could.....but I’m not sure if you should, but that’s not what the question asked....too literal? Maybe.

Anyway all frivolity aside by the time I got to the course a few days later I met our instructor, a paramedic with 37 years on the job and the stories he told were chilling, children scalded by hot coffee’s at 1 in the morning (too many questions there) to SIDS calls and so many preventable and some not accidents in the home. It really bought it all home. The importance of not only haing a first aid kit in the home but knowing what to do with it and how to react in an emergency situation. Things that seem so simple but may mean the difference between the worst and the best result and exactly how to give CPR to an infant under one year old compared to a child who is over one.

It was pretty sobering and I feel so much more confident knowing the basics of CPR, how to use a defibrillator (you never know when you may need one) what to do for bites, stings and bleeds and hopefully if I ever need all this I hope I can remain calm enough to remember it all.

Do you feel confident? Would you know what to do if your child fell and hit their head, or broke an arm or leg? Do you have a compression bandage in case of spider or snake bites? With the average ambulance response time of 11 minutes then you may not always be able to wait for help, are you prepared?

Thanks to esidirect we are able to offer you a chance to win a fantastic top of the range Family First Aid Kit in our July Competition, made up in a durable and compact plastic box it contains all of the things you would expect to find in a first aid kit such as wound dressings, scissors, a first aid pamphlet, emergency blanket and so much more, if you have been meaning to re-stock or even purchase a first aid kit for your family you could be in for a chance to win this one, simply email us with the worst family injury you have had to deal with in 50 words or less, don't forget to include your first name and suburb. Entries close 31st July and the winner will be chosen on the 1st of August.