What a fantastic story to receive from a recent VHNZ First Aid course graduate, so fortunate to hear of our First Aid skills being carried out in a real life situation. A brilliant first reponse to an emergency situation, and a great outcome with the writer stating "“…moments like this bring people together for life”.

Carys First Aid Story:

At the end of April, my partner and I set off on a cycling adventure from Papakura to Waihi. On Thursday 26th April we were sat at a cafe en route. Whilst sipping on tea we witnessed a car backing out of the gravel car park heading straight towards an elderly gentleman on walking aids. The car could not see out the back due to bikes being attached to a rack and the elderly was paralyzed in fear and unable to shout out for help. My partner Emmett reacted to the situation rapidly and started calling out for the driver to stop, we both realised pretty quickly he couldn’t hear our screams and was about to hit the man.

We jumped out of our seats and ran over as the car made contact, luckily the car was going at a slow speed but it was enough to knock the elderly man to the floor. In the few seconds it took us to reach him there was already a mass amount of blood pouring from his head. It seemed one of the sharp gravel rocks had punctured his upper forehead and made quite the hole. At this moment I was highly grateful to the Waiheke Resources Trust as I had been able to undergo a two-day outdoor first aid course the week before. This course not only gave me the tools and knowledge of how to deal with accidents and incidents but also the confidence to apply this knowledge in a real-life situation.

Once I saw the wound I grabbed the closest thing around, being the man’s hat, and directed Emmett to hold pressure on the wound. I was then able to instruct the waitress to call an ambulance and get a first aid kit. We did a rapid swap to get a sterile bandage on the wound and continued to apply pressure. His head was still bleeding excessively with pools of blood around the back of his head. Once the bandage was in place we were able to gently roll him onto a rug and wrap him in some coats for warmth and comfort. When his wife saw the amount of blood he had lost, she began to panic. At this point, we had two patients we needed to keep calm to avoid either of them going into shock. Emmett and I spent the next fifteen minutes talking calming to the man about his life and keeping him informed about his incident and what was going on around him. Once the ambulance had arrived we were able to relax knowing he was in good care and later reflect on the situation. Many people thanked us afterward and commented on how quick we were to react, I’d like to think most people would have done the same but having done the first aid course it definitely had a positive impact on the speed and confidence in which we dealt with the situation.

Since the incident the couple have been in touch, the patient has recovered and is doing well after receiving medical care and an evening in hospital. They have invited us to stay with them and encourage us to stay in touch as moments like this bring people together for life.