You Never Know When Your Training Will Be Needed

I was at Bottle Lake Forest Easter Sunday morning, mountain biking. I was near the jumps just before you enter the forest. There were a couple of young guys working at one of the jumps with spades, didn't think much about them. But suddenly there were screams coming from that area.

I pelted over and found one of the guys had been engulfed by the pile. He'd been digging at the dirt pile jump, and it had collapsed on top of him. He was screaming his head off and his mate was frantically trying to pull him free.

As I helped him get the guy out of the dirt pile and laying down, I noticed his left hand was hanging off. I looked further and noticed his left foot was even worse.

Dirt!

You hear the "engulfment" side of "confined space" and you think "yeah right, a pile of dirt only about a person height can't hurt anyone". Well, you'd be wrong. Partial amputation of both a hand and a foot. Poor kid. And I'm not kidding, that was the phrase the paramedics used - "partial amputation". Both were just hanging on by threads, a little muscle and tissue only.

So no wonder he was screaming his head off. So, training kicks into gear.

I order my friend to call 111 and place his broken wrist on his tummy instead of laying in the dirt where it was. From bystanders I get a jersey to put under his broken ankle to keep that clear of the dirt pile and relatively clean.

A woman turns up with an impressively good first aid kit, and a doctor also appeared on the scene, dialled the hospital, and had a theatre prepped ready for him straight away. Since his open gaping wounds were chocked full of dirt and we had no sterile water we didn't bandage them up, just placed absorbant pads over them to help stop them from getting any dirtier in that environment. The doctor attended his foot - he still had circulation. A very good sign.

I ran the kid through the secondary survey patient questions, and advised his mate helping him to only pour water on his face, not let him drink it. I went down his body looking for other injuries and found none.

Someone handed me a phone and said "It's the police". They wanted to know his name and age, but not much else. I assured them we'd already called 111 for an ambulance, but they seemed to insist they were dispatching one as well.

Training again - it was me that looked around and instructed the bystanders to clear the area. Bikes, wheelbarrows, spades, it was difficult to get to the poor guy.

Basically, I spent the next 5-10 minutes just reassuring him and keeping that hand on his tummy. Someone called his home, and his dad turned up pretty quick. The paramedics were not far behind, with what sounded like quite a few sirens. Turns out the police had sent four units as well as the ambulance. We had ambulance, four Police cars, and even a TV news crew turned up too.

I briefed the paramedic who arrived first on his condition, and I'm proud to say the training held well there - the look on his face! I could tell he wasn't used to getting so much clear information. I moved out of their way and stayed at the kid's head, reassuring him and just being there. His mum turned up after that and as soon as I realised that's who she was I moved away and let her take over.

Told the police what happened, gave name and contact etc. Chucked the blood-soaked gloves I'd been wearing in the car - not gonna wear them today. Then basically just went on our ride. The professionals were there now, he was gonna be okay.

A very exciting morning. An interesting opportunity to use the first aid and general skills training that we receive. An opportunity to critically evaluate my own weaknesses there. And a brilliant lesson in confined spaces. Honestly guys, if you'd asked me "are those two guys safe?" I'd have probably looked at you like you were crazy. A pile of dirt.

Dirt!

Poor freaking kid. He kept saying over and over "It's not fair" and I said to him "You're right mate, it's not, it f#@%&*!#g sucks."

Afterwards I visited him in the hospital the following day. He is going to be fine. He's had a plate put in his foot, and will require a lot more surgery on both the wrist and ankle before they are complete. But he can wiggle his toes!

Deb
NZ-RT11

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