FIRST AID KITS - Do you have one?

[K-T]

[ QUOTE ]
KevinL said:
My organization just emailed me an offer about first aid training, a 4-day course covering 32 hours. I'm going to have to fork over a considerable amount of money for it, too (what, no subsidy?)

Maybe I should spend the money on the lawyer instead. The lawyer won't make me sit still for 4 days too.

[/ QUOTE ]

My opinion is to take that course - you never know when you might be in need of the stuff you learned there!

Being sued or not might be a regional thing - I have never heard of something like these stories above around here, still I don't doubt them being true. There were some pretty ridiculous law suits but none of them ever ended in favour of the one "supposed victim".

Of course all depends on what you do in a first-aid situation. I would not start injecting stuff into someone I didn't know and/or without the proper training.

This is a tough topic and an interesting one for sure, maybe a second thread should be started in the Cafe about it and we try to get back on what would you need/want in your First Aid Kit?

 

[flownosaj]

In my reply I started to go on and on and ramble, so I edited it down.
-----------------
I just wanted to add that I didn't mean to imply that I was sued at that accident scene. There is a risk of that, but my concern was more for my personal safety.

1. driver who didn't listen to reason.
2. "rubberneckers" and secondary accidents
3. blood all over me.
4. People who try to help are prone to panic and often more of a hinderance.
5. Lacked the proper eqipment to properly stablilze and support the driver to exit the car, despite what "helpers" said. People watch way too many action films for their own good. Cars don't blow up after an accident--see #4.

 

[Phil_B]

If you are interested enough to carry First Aid kits I would recommend you go on a course. you may be suprised at the harm that can be done with the best intent.
As for the kit,unless you are a professional,or ALWAYS carry your kit,sods law says you won't have it when you need it.
Learn it,keep it in your head,and remember to use it calmly.
You will panic and it IS numbing.
I did CPR on a mate at work. 39 years,family,and a good buddy. Big heart attack following a stroke.He had little chance but you try because you are the only hope they have.
The ambulance was 25 minutes,the first aid kit (CPR mask) was 400 yds away. You don't have time to think of lawyers anyway.
He died right there. It won't stop me trying again.Your aim is to maintain till the EMT arrives.
Our public are becoming litigation mad,but I think common sense still prevails here at least.
His family thanked us for trying and that was more than anyone can ask.

So, go learn it,it's something you yourself can never benefit from,but your spirit does, when you help someone else.Even if you get it right but it still doesn't work.
Go for it!
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Samoan]

[ QUOTE ]
sotto said:
A couple years ago, the postal lady had delivered mail to my next door neighbor's house and was walking up my sidewalk to my front door to deliver my mail. About that time, my neighbor opens his door to pick up his mail from the box, and one of his Rottweilers gets loose, leaps over his front yard fence and decides to use the mail lady's hand as a chew toy. The neighbor dashes over to my yard, hauls his Rott off the mail lady, and drags the dog back into his house. I hear the commotion, go to my front door, and see the mail lady dripping blood all over my doorstep, and with her mail bag on the ground and the contents strewn all over the yard. I calm her down, sit her down, give her a large clean bandage to wrap around her hand to stop the blood, provide her a phone to call her supervisor, and I pick up her spilled mail and place it back into her bag.

Within 2 days, I received a notification from her lawyer that I was being sued.

Moral:

Use good judgment about who you may potentially be wasting your help on. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

YOu could have stayed inside your house and ended up in that lawsuit. Your property, your problem. Given what you've mentioned in your post you're probably going to be found harmless...your neighbor on the other hand....

-F

 

[bonvivantmike]

As I tell my CPR students, you can always be sued. Good Samaritan laws simply ensure that you will not lose, as long as you follow a few specific points:

1. Your actions are reasonable. If you do something unreasonably stupid (tourniquet on the neck, or something equally daft), you will still lose the lawsuit.

2. Your actions do not exceed your scope of practice. As an untrained bystander, you can provide basic first aid. EMTs, paramedics, nurses, PAs, and MDs all have specific scopes of practice which detail what they may do.

"Duty to act" has been mentioned. Duty to act refers to the obligation that a health care provider has to help someone needing medical assistance. It does not typically refer to untrained bystanders. There is some gray area in the laws, but as I understand it:

1. If you are on duty, and witness someone needing assistance, you must assist if it can be done with reasonable safety. If you are off-duty yet still in uniform, you typically have a duty to act since the public has an expectation that you will act, and cannot reasonably know that you are off the clock.

2. Once you begin treatment, you may not discontinue it unless you transfer the patient to a higher-level healthcare provider. If you do this, it's called Abandonment, and it's a big deal. You can lose your license, be held civilly liable, and even be held criminally liable in extreme cases.

An off-duty provider does not necessarily have a legal duty to act. The provider may feel a moral duty to act, but this is not legally enforceable.

 

[dsl]

what is a good light weight bog to carry in a fat boy for my first aid bag???

 

[Malpaso]

Check out Cheaper Than Dirt for surplus military first aid kits and supplies. I've gotten a bunch of stuff from them that I carry, and it's all been decent quality.

As far as stopping to help, I'll stop anytime I think I can help someone. The benefit of helping far outweighs the risk of being sued. If we shy away from helping each other because of the way society is becomming, we are facilitating society in becomming more that way.

 

[chmsam]

I put together first aid kits in tackle boxes. It's easier to fill, organize, and get at stuff. And, yes, the wife & kid do raid them and NEVER refill them, so I inventory them whenever I think about it. My training is out of date, but since I was raised to never turn my back on someone really needing help, I'll probably get back to it.

Why? One reason is that many years ago a buddy of mine died at an amusement park after he had passed out and we tried to revive him. Second best part of all -- my friends and I actually were not the only ones there who knew what to do, but we were the only ones who WOULD do anything.

(Here comes the really good part) -- Nothing like being 15 to 20 minutes into CPR (hey, if you've been there, done that, you'll know how time flies when you're really having fun) and hearing someone say,

... "Do you think we should call for an ambulance?"

(and knowing full well that the ambulance was an easy 25 minutes away). Anyway, after all that, he was an ADASTW. Talk about feeling like you're falling off a cliff, but you do keep trying all the way down, right? Got to.

BTW, I don't think that there's anything heroic in any of this, but I really do hope that attitude is more normal than not. But then I am an optimist.

So... Hear me now, remember me later -- your chances of survival are waaaayyy better if you have the "Ain't nobody gonna save yer butt but you" philosophy. It's just that I may be a sick puppy, but screw Murphy and his law, and punch the lawyers in the nose, too. "Be prepared" as the Boy Scouts say. That is something to keep in your first aid kit.

And lest I forget, bless all those who go to the aid of others.

 

[junior]

good post chmsam!

I always help and have done it before. The hell with litigation and everything else.

Thats why i have a legal plan