I spent the 23rd April doing my sports first aid training with the St John’s Ambulance. I’m now a sports first aid qualified skateboarding instructor. I learned the procedures to follow in the event of an accident, and some practical aspects, such as how to do CPR, how to tie a sling and to apply a bandage.
The steps are generally as follows:
- First ensure you are not in danger. You can’t help if you are incapacitated via the same means as the casualty!
- Find out if they are responsive using external stimuli
- Check they are breathing
- Call for help
- Put them in the recovery position
The above is the best case scenario. If step 3 results in you finding out that they are not breathing you need to perform CPR.
It was interesting thinking about how the training applies to the specific activity of skateboarding. An important point was that you should make the area safe i.e. stop people riding in the immediate area while the casualty is being attended to. Hopefully anything I have to do will be confined to icing bruises or sprains. A first aid kit is on the way and will be kept in the storage lock up in the park. I do hope we won’t have to use it any time soon!