Question for you all – first aid and social distancing.
In the park today and a lad feel off his bike on the tarmac path.
Lots of crying and shouting that he’d broken his arm.
I went over to help and there was a fair amount of blood where he’d taken the skin off the back of his forearm.
Told his Mom I was a first aider and asked did she want help.
Ran back to the car to grab my first aid kit and gave him a bit of a check – he could move his arm and nothing felt out of place on his collar bone.
Cleaned up his arm with a bottle of water and alcohol wipes and then put a pad and bandage over the wound – all good.
I didn’t think until afterwards about social distancing.
Did I do the right thing or should I have given his mother the kit and talked her through what to do?
Thoughts please.

IMHO, you did the right thing. The chances of him having the virus and then transferring it to you remain slim.

I guess you could have talked his mum through the process instead, especially on what seems to have been a relatively superficial injury. The question is; what if it had been something else and he needed CPR?

Right thing. I think unless you are in an at risk category then helping is the correct course of action.

Correct thing to do. If there’s a clear and pressing need to help someone that takes precedence.

But referring to his mum as “mom”, sorry I can’t forgive that 😉

I’d have done the same.

I do still find it amazing how few folk do a first aid course.
Imo all school leavers should do one.

My 2 day Outdoor First Aid renewal course was postponed from early May and is now in a fortnights time, here in Glasgow. I wonder if it will go ahead….

I reckon you did the right thing, the only thing you could do proactively is use a spare bandage from your kit as a face covering as much for their benefit as yours. And wear the gloves in the kit.

To be honest, perhaps first aid kits used in a formal setting such as the workplace should have a couple of masks, one for the patient and one for the first aider.

jeffl
But referring to his mum as “mom”, sorry I can’t forgive that 😉

It’s a Brummie thing 😁

Thanks all.
I’ll be ordering some face masks to go in my kits (if I can find any……).

There was a study which tracked where people caught the virus from.

Something like 95% of cases were from being indoors in the same room.
About 4% were transfer from surfaces.
There was 1 case (0.2%) which was caught outside, where two people were shouting outside a restaurant.

The outside is a big place, and you won’t exhale much virus per breath even if you’re infected unless you are coughing, spluttering or shouting.

I could post a link but I can’t be bothered.

Told his Mom I was a first aider and asked did she want help.

Probably the most critical stage.

I couldn’t agree more with this. 🙂

You did what I would have done.

There are specific Covid guidelines out from Red Cross and St John, I think.

yes. In the same way that you wouldn’t move a casualty if you suspect a spinal injury, but if they aren’t breathing and need CPR too then you may have to override. Treat the most significant risk first while doing as much as you can to mitigate the other.

The day after VE day, we heard a shriek from the road and a bunch of us rushed out from our houses. Middle aged women had crashed her bike badly and was lying in the road. None of us were first aid trained but we all got involved in making her comfortable, blocking off the road and phoning an ambulance. Wasn’t until after that we noticed that we’d not been social distancing. In my view there are situations in life where some risk has to be taken in order to do the right thing.
Incidentally we cancelled the ambulance after waiting an hour and drove her to hospital. She’d broken and dislocated her arm and smashed her face up. No helmet, complete beginner. Husband, experienced cyclist wearing helmet.

She’d broken and dislocated her arm and smashed her face up. No helmet, complete beginner. Husband, experienced cyclist wearing helmet.

How would a helmet have stopped her crashing, smashing her face or dislocating her arm?

You did the right thing, the benefit outweighed the risk IMO.

Bit like the current band of folk moaning about police Scotland breathalising folk, the risk is not as bad as idiots driving round blootered.

How would a helmet have stopped her crashing, smashing her face or dislocating her arm?

It would have stopped her getting seriously injured if she’d landed on her noggin.
As it was she walked away with minor injuries that didn’t need a hospital.

Should have added, cycled past an RTA the first weekend of lockdown. Cyclist down with injured leg. Drivers dealing with traffic, calling ambulance and Police, one said they were a first aider. I left them a foil blanket to cover him, and left them to it, but while people were conscious of social distancing, the casualty took priority.

I had this two weeks ago. out at work when I drove up to an old couple the wife had fallen over and was in the road. We moved her onto the verge dispite my protest that she should stay still as my van blocking the lane anyway. I was more worried about giving her covid tbh as you just never know.. ambulance crew turned up and took over and I went to town on the hand gel.

Covid is a long way down the list of infection worries for me in a first aid situation, HIV, hepatitis etc would worry me way more. I’m a trained first wider (done the 2 day outdoor course a three times now, last time less than 12 months ago) and despite knowing the risks I’d hope I’d still get involved (assuming I wasn’t throwing up or fainting, not good with blood etc,).

Brant, a helmet would have probably taken the brunt of her head hitting the ground rather than her forehead.
However, I only added that as a point of minor note, no need to instigate another discussion on that tired subject.

Good work, OP.

@dirkpitt74 Well done. When our news is full of self indulgent scum, it’s good to hear about people who will step up to the plate regardless of their own interests.

He was shouting a lot so I would have told him to get a grip on her on with it.

Personally I would keep out of it, you don’t know if the kid has broken it’s arm or not, you are not medically trained.

A First Aider is medically trained, and if the kid had a broken arm, all the more reason to get involved. (Edit- I see this was aimed at the RTA not the first post, still largely relevant though)

The only real concern for a First Aider is not to give any drugs or creams except the patients own Epi-Pen if you’ve been given the (very basic) training, and to only treat the patient if they agree. If they don’t agree, you just wait until they fall unconscious and then you can crack on, it’s your duty.

I don’t think anyone has ever been prosecuted for causing further injury when they had good intentions at heart.

It’s a 1 day course (or 3 for a bit more detail) to become a First Aider. Anyone who would not intervene just in case there was a serious injury should get themselves on one (when things get back to normal)