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The Importance of First Aid Training

Over this past weekend, our buddy Brad from MADCAT had a sobering experience that I think we can all learn from. This is from the MADCAT Facebook page:

Hey guys, I want to share something with you that happened tonight. Me, my wife and my kids were going to dinner and witnessed a car hit a guy on a motorcycle, so we pulled over to help. We were pretty much the first ones on the scene, so I grabbed my med bag that I keep in my wife’s van to assist. The guy’s left foot was completely severed from his leg with bone exposed, and he was bleeding pretty bad. I applied a CAT tourniquet, provided any aid that I could, stopped the bleeding and helped calm him down until medics could arrive and they airlifted him to the hospital. What’s my point of sharing this? My point is, shit can happen in an instant whether it be you, your family or someone else. It’s up to you to be as prepared as possible.

Companies like Dark Angel Medical, LLC are always offering advice, information and kit for medical care. If you don’t have a medical bag, put one together. There are great companies out there that sell them. If you’re not trained on any immediate first-aid, contact your local EMS or Fire Department and find out how you can get some training. If you’re already trained, seek some refresher training to keep your skills sharp. My skills are nowhere near what they need to be, but I retained enough to get this guy the immediate aid that he needed until medical professionals could get to the scene. Make the decision to develop a decent med kit. It may just save someone’s life like it may have done tonight. Everyone please be safe out there this weekend.

I think it goes without saying that Brad likely saved that man’s life. If you haven’t done so already, get a kit, and more importantly, get some training. You can improvise a lot of things if you have to, but knowledge isn’t one of them.

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5 Responses to The Importance of First Aid Training

  1. Mike September 25, 2012 at 11:01 am #

    Great advice! I was at work and stabbed my self with a cable skinning knife. That was a poor time to find out that my company issued First Aid Kit was really a Boo-Boo kit! I ended up using my gloves and vinyl tape to try and stop the bleeding till I got to the hospital. A trauma bandage would have gone a long way!

    Keep up the good work,
    Mike

    • Brandon September 25, 2012 at 12:51 pm #

      Thanks Mike – good improvise, glad it worked out for you man.

  2. Eric Lopez September 25, 2012 at 1:19 pm #

    I have one at home that is fairly thorough. I never thought of making two, the other one for the vehicle… I will replicate the one I have at home to put one in my car! Good advice. I just use my kit a few nights ago… Very minor incident, but nonetheless it was nice to have just about anything I might need. Thanks for the post!

    • Eric Lopez September 25, 2012 at 1:22 pm #

      And just to give you an ideas as to how thorough, I work at a hospital 🙂

      • Brandon September 25, 2012 at 1:26 pm #

        Excellent!