Trauma Kit

[prv]

Think I'd lose confidence, if the 'first responder', was thumbing through an instruction manual.

Might still be better than them flapping their hands saying "I don't know what to doooo!"

Pete

 

[NorthUp]

…... If you DO have to use a tourniquet, it must be loosened from time to time or your patient will end up with gangrene....

Current training is that once you apply a tourniquet it does not come off until the casualty is in a&e.
I appreciate your circumstances may be different, days or more from a hospital.

 

[Rigger Mortice]

Might be a better idea to read it in advance.
Think I'd lose confidence, if the 'first responder', was thumbing through an instruction manual.

If it was a trained first responder I would certainly be surprised but, if it were family or friends on my boat I would positively encourage them to use a manual. Odds are that I would be the first to be looking things up if I were the casualty.

 

[Trop Cher]

CPR won't restart a heart; it is an intermediate measure to keep blood flowing. A defib would be required.

Recently the CPR techniques have been revised. For offshore it sounds a good thing but not something I have considered.

What injury would result in a stopped heart?

CPR can restart a heart, not often, but can happened, but the CPR has to be effective. A defib is not used to restart a heart but in fact to stop the heart in the hope that the heart will restart with a NSR.

NSR = normal sinus rhythm

 

[Rigger Mortice]

CPR can restart a heart, not often, but can happened, but the CPR has to be effective. A defib is not used to restart a heart but in fact to stop the heart in the hope that the heart will restart with a NSR.

NSR?

I was under the impression that a defib was much like a computer reboot?

 

[Trop Cher]

The defibrillator is a good bit of kit, but although mostly designed to be fool-proof, you should get training in its use - not least in recognizing when to use it. They are dangerous if used inappropriately (though the defibrillator should recognize a heart-beat and refuse to work if it detects one).

Any situation that requires intervention at that magnitude is a MAYDAY. Of course, if you are offshore and days from help, then you need enough kit to allow a medic on the radio to guide you while help arrives. But if you're in coastal waters, slowing bleeding and immobilizing broken limbs is probably all you should attempt, as well as CPR.

Apologies if I'm teaching Granny to suck eggs!

A defib will not shock if no heart beat is found, it will shock if a heart beat is found but only if they are VF or FT. It shocks to stop the heart in the hope that the heart will restart in a NSR, which doesn't always happen or may take several shocks. If there is no heart output, start CPR, must be effective, which takes practice, and check for pulse every three minutes. If after 15 minutes, there's still no output, I'm afraid but recovery is slim.

 

[IJL]

Current training is that once you apply a tourniquet it does not come off until the casualty is in a&e.
I appreciate your circumstances may be different, days or more from a hospital.

The use of tourniquets is fairly limited, they are for the sort of injury you may well see in a war zone but not likely on boat. The first rule should be "do no harm" and in most cases simple first aid will suffice, the abilty to splint a fracture with an inflatable or SAM splint would be good and to be able to deal with burns and lacerations. Ever fewer wounds are sutured these days with glue and steristrips being more common and if you are going to put sutures in you will need to use some lidocaine. An AED type of defib might be a thought but to be honest if someone has a cardiac arrest offshore even with a defib their chance of survival is close to zero. There are guides on treating common illnesses at sea but when a last saw one it was out of step with current thinking and advised antibiotic treatment for what are generally going to be viral problems. Keep it simple