Hi Guys,
Part of my job involves going to some remote and sometime hostile places. Therefore work has just sent me on an a course that covered things well beyond the scope of a normal First Aid At Work or First Person on Scene- Intermediate, course. Including Needle Chest decompression, torniquets, canulation, emergency airways and many others. (These techniques are not to be used in the UK for legal reasons but are life savers in less developed parts of the world)
This is far from the only "first Aid" course I have been on but it is the first that I actually felt would be usefull in the sort of places that I and many others on here like to visit when traveling. Lets be honest if you roll your Landcruiser/ highside your Africa Twin in the middle of the DRC you want your travel companion to know a bit more than sticky plasters and triangular bandages if you are planning on surviving.
So my question is does anyone offer this sort of training for travelers? If not why not? Its all very well me doing the course through my line of work but if I am the injured party I would feel happier knowing that my travel companions have had some meaningfull training and could actually do something usefull in the event of me having life threatening injuries!
Is it just me or is QUALITY casualty care training the thing that most of us forget when preping for an expedition?

Off my soap box now

Jesus

I couldn't be more disappointed... After all these years i find out jesus has to go on a course to be able to heal the sick !!

That's Jesus pronunced Hézus!!

Use the force Hézus.

But more seriously, I thought about a good 1st aid training course but ran out of time and I only got as far as buying a 1st aid kit and getting top medical insurance with repatriation...

That said you make a good point and statistically speaking the 1st aid given in the first 30mins of any serious accident can determine the the life or death of a patient. Problem being that if you're the victim then no matter how much 1st aid training you have, it'll only be as good as you can manage to apply to yourself, see the connundrum?

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TurboCharger + Francois (our BMW R1200gs) '07
www.riding2up.net, blog.riding2up.net

lol long hair and beard equals one not very original nickname.

I was being serious in the question though is anyone doing these courses for travelers or does some health and safety nonsense prohibit it?

Jesus

There may be this sort of stuff on offer at the Nakusp meeting in August. The problem with teaching things like needle decompression is that although placing the needle is easy, knowing when to place it and what to do afterwards e.g. when blood not air comes pissing out that is the hard bit. Can often do more harm than good in inexperienced hands. No disrespect intended.

Try 'ExMed' in hereford.
They do a 'MIRA (medicine in remote areas) course which is very well accredited

Exmed UK prepares more than a thousand people a year in the delivery of emergency care in critical and acute situations

I did the course and it was very well put together.

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Geoffshing

'Security is a product of one's own imagination, it does not exist in nature as a rule, life is either a daring adventure or nothing.'

Not if he lives in the UK, has long hair and a beard...!!

I couldn't be more disappointed... After all these years i find out jesus has to go on a course to be able to heal the sick !!


Srace7 - that is the best line I've heard in along while. V funny!

These people offer just such training. Suitable for solo travellers who go out for about 40 days so to speak. Lindsay.

ps There should be an 8 hour course at Ripley this June. It is to be as described, beyond that available in the more common 1st aid courses available in the UK. We're still working on it, with details to come later.


Wilderness Medical Training | Expert expedition medical training for laypeople & medics

There are quite a few companies that offer this sort of 1st Aid Course.

Mountain Leaders, Outdoor instructors etc. are all required to complete remote response 1st aid courses every couple of years. There is the Remote Emergency Care Level 2 which covers the basics or the more advanced level 4 which is often decribed as Expedition Level.

If you google "Remote Emergency Care" you'll get a selection.

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Kev

Love the joke about Jesus.
However as a Ex paramedic in the Army rtd ,(2002), there are plenty of places to go & learn this, the question is really why are you learning it? if your on your own, may be broken leg ok but chest drain & a 'few' more complicated things no way, but as a group well & good.
I personally would suggest you go do a basic first aid course, which btw most places of work do as a free bee under heath & safety & duty first aider, these would probably hold you in better good stead, or if like where I live the Ambulance service gives up after 23.59 & all go home.
Learn to be a first responder, bit more involved & you do 'real' shouts get to do cpr defib etc

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We are the Pilgrims, Master, we shall go Always a little further: it may be beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow, Across that angry or that glimmering sea.

My wife and I have been on the parts one and two of the WMT and thought they were ace. The only drawback in part one was in some lecture sessions there were a lot of people covering a wide range of experiences. We are novices, having only done 1st Aid at work essentially, whereas others were experienced nurses etc, so a few questions and topics were over our head. It is a little targeted at expedition based trips, so as lone travellers we were the exception and seen as slightly mad.

Questions are easily answered though, and we learnt a huge amount.

Part 2 is, and has to be, only about 20 odd people, so the student teacher ratio was much more personal.

It also raised a few questions about what we thought we could and would do, and to who, that we hadn't thought about before.

Highly recommended!

The most important part of this sort of stuff is knowing when NOT to do anything. I have seen many times people who thought they were helping make the situation worse, sometimes much worse. The idea that you can learn to be a paramedic or ER doc over a course is misplaced. Doing some of the stuff that gets taught on these courses can kill people who would have otherwise lived in inexperienced hands and gives the traveler a false sense of safety and competence.