Tasting...

Well, I volunteered here for 11 hours on Saturday and 5 on Sunday by checking the ID of anyone wanting to enter the beer garden. It was a long couple of days really. Further, the way I learned of the event was through St. John Ambulance. I was going to take advanced medical training with them and volunteer, but when they canceled the training I thought I'd volunteer there anyway. Glad I did. There were two medical emergencies, one on each day that required an ambulance to be summoned - with St. John Ambulance nowhere to be found (although they were supposed to be there). The first day was a woman who collapsed in the heat and hit her head on the concrete. She hadn't been there long so it was most likely just dehydration and the heat. I heard that something had happened and went to see. The head of the event didn't have first aid, so I stepped in.

I didn't feel like I did enough or remembered enough. The following morning, before I returned to volunteer for the second day, I had a feeling that I needed to bone up on the symptoms and treatment for: strokes, heart attack, and shock. Well, aren't I glad I did. A man had a stroke, and again, no St. John Ambulance. I was called immediately and suspected he had a stroke when he had urinated himself and was drifting on one side. EMS were there in 10-15 minutes. The man was adamant that he didn't need to go to the hospital and he was fine - it was difficult to break it to him that he had wee'd in his trousers and that he wasn't fine. A very good sign that he was feeling tip top after, but probably didn't hurt to get him checked out by the doctor so he knew what had happened by a professional.

This leads me to think that even if I can't get the medical training that I should cough up the money and do it myself. If I am volunteering more, these things are more likely to come across my path. I mean really, I haven't really used the first aid in the 17 years I had it, then to suddenly use it twice? Feast or famine.