First Aid

The tentacles of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act reach unto the ultimate ends of the earth, yea, even unto the farthest reaches of the Holton Lee estate, which explains why Wally and Denise were sitting outside Winterbourne Whitechurch village hall in the sun, eating their sarnies.

We are required to have trained First Aiders available, and thus it was that Wally, Denise and Jo M attended a one-day Emergency First Aid course. The Village Hall was bitterly cold despite the best efforts of the organisers to get the central heating going efficiently, so the trainees were only too glad to decamp to the sheltered area in front of the Hall where they were in the sun for their lunch break. The Trainer (Paul . . .oops, I mean Phil from Southern First Aid Training) suggested we should have the afternoon session outside, which we readily agree to. We had to be assessed at the end of the day, and I am glad to say that we all passed, and our Certificates are on their way. It was an excellent course, and we were lucky to have such an experienced trainer, who held our attention throughout and made what could be a dull subject into an interactive and interesting session.

Rather than wait for a partner (there was an odd number of trainees) we worked in a three, hence Wally had one arm bandaged by Denise and one by Jo M

"’Oppit, and take that other bandage with you" or "you do that again and I'll scream"

“Never volunteer!!” (An alternative caption for any Goon Show fans still around might be “Bottle doesn’t like this rotten game!)

Resussie-Annie undergoes Denise’s ministrations

Denise and Jo M get together to revive the victim (you have been warned . . . )

Wally, Denise and Jo M had all done a number of first aid courses in the past, and today’s exercises with Resussie-Annie (the dummy used for practising CPR – “mouth-to-mouth”) brought back embarrassing memories for Jo M of her first meeting with Resussie-Annie, many years ago . The tutor had given a brief demonstration of CPR to the class, and invited Jo M to be the first to try it. Unfortunately, no-one had thought to mention how hard one should blow into the victim’s mouth, so Jo M took a deep breath, and in the manner of someone inflating a party balloon, blew as hard as she could into poor Ressussie-Annie, who “swelled wisibly” and for a moment seemed in danger of taking off and floating somewhere in the region of the ceiling. . . ("swelled wisibly" (with a "W") is a quote from Dickens' Pickwick Papers. . . . . not that I have ever read it, but I'd heard the phrase used and it had appealed to me!)

Posted by Jo