Would you be able to help?

[councilman24 36]

At one of the Jacksonville symposiums, I'd have to look to see which year, I gave a seminar on DZ First Aid. Subtitled "What NOT to do"

The biggest issue I've seen is people who don't know what they're doing trying to help.

The classic example was in about 1985. ALL of the mideast conference S&TA's were walking across the parking lot for our annual meeting. A guy came down wind too low to turn in. He had the choice of eating a fence row or trying to get around. He turned, came out of the turn into the back of a full size van and crashed to the ground. We had people who wanted to pick him up and carry him into the club house, to drive to the hospital, to roll him over, to you name it. I had to fight them all off, cover the guy in his parachute to keep him warm, get behind him (he was on his side) to support him where he was and wait for the ambulance. He was concsous, but with a mildly compounded lower leg. The crew back borded him on his side. I wouldn't have done that but that was their call.

I've been around a lot of other injuries, from closed head injuries to broken femurs to broken backs to fatalities. Worked on dead mike at the WFFC along with the real fatiality earlier in the day. All most without exception, keep 'em warm, keep 'em still, apply C spine traction, fight off the other idiots and wait for a crew with gear. I've carried up to a backboard/c collars and traction splints in my truck but never used them. I have used CPR personal protective equipment. Almost always have gloves and a mask.

IF your trained, and have the gear, and have enough trained help to do what you want, AND for some reason response will be slow or ABC's are compromised, obviously you are going to do what you can.

Biggest thing is to get response rolling, with accurate directions and guides posted at road, parking lot, runways, gates, etc., GOOD communication between incident scene, office/DZ, and responsible person dealing with 911/etc. and not doing things you shouldn't. Get the wavier with medical and contact information COPIED and ready to hand to the crew.

I am licensed to the level of being able to put the helicopter on alert but don't have the authority to lauch it myself. In my community actually ANYBODY can call and let the helicopter know they might be needed. The don't advertise it but they'd rather be put on pad alert ready to go than be behind the curve. Many helicopter services have a ride along program for first responders. Here you get a 6 hour shift. If you get to go great, if not you had your chance. Learn how to set up a landing area.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[Tink1717 2]

No, I am NOT protected under good Samaritan
laws if I charge If I don't charge, I'm covered.

Skydivers don't knock on Death's door. They ring the bell and runaway... It really pisses him off.
-The World Famous Tink. (I never heard of you either!!)
AA #2069 ASA#33 POPS#8808 Swooo 1717

[LongWayToFall 0]

I marked trained, but not certified. I took an EMT class, but did not get the cert because I was unable to complete a portion of the class. Some EMT classes are all classroom, such as fire tech ones, mine happened to have a required hospital and ambulance shift, very worthwhile but I couldn't make the ambulance rotation. As others have said, most of the time you do as little as possible, if they are broken, you do not want to make things worse by moving or touching them. If you know how, you can help the paramedics with small things such as pointing out damaged areas that might not be readily visible, how they impacted, observing respiratory rates, etc. The good Samaritan act is mostly there to protect people who had to make a choice when there is no clear answer, such as a car crash where there is leaking gas, do you get them out and risk death or leave them and risk death? Skydiving accidents mostly would not have these situations, so please don't interfere if possible. I would encourage anyone to take an EMT class, you never know when it might come in handy.

[Squeak 17]

Former field medic for thr Royal Australian NAVY
Former volunteer beach patrol life saver
former SCUBA instructor/ serarch and rescue diver
current Senior 1st Aid Instructor.

Never had to use any of it on a DZ.
My DZ has an Emercency Action Plan in place. it works wellenough without my interference

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[hackish 8]

In Canada the good samaratin act differs slightly by province. In general even health care professionals are covered provided they aren't rendering assistance in a hospital setting. The other thing that isn't covered is gross negligence.

-Michael

[chaoskitty 0]

I'm CPR certified, and willing to do all I can if needed. There are regulars at my dz who are medically qualified, and I'd willingly stay out of their way. I think I'm more qualified to provide emotional comfort to an injured person. Sometimes just a hand to hold helps, depending on the injury of course.

[DZDANK 0]

I have very basic red cross training recieved through years of lifeguarding, the training is no longer current... I guess the most usefull thing I could do would be to immobilize somebody if neck/back injury was suspected to try to keep them from causing further injury. I know that there are more qualified folks at the local DZ, so I would probably run for the phone and get the wagon there asap. Don't really like to see/think about it either...

[relyon 0]

I checked other. Not being trained or certified, I know I'd be more in the way than anything, so I'd probably move along and encouage others to do likewise unless I was specifically being asked to do something by someone who was. If I was the only one there at the time, I'd do the minimum necessary - pull their head out of water, compression to prevent arterial bleeding, move the person if they're in any further immediate danger, etc. - until more qualified help arrived.

Such a thing happened in front of my teammates and I while we were waiting for the plane. In the early days of swooping before swoop ponds ("turf surfing"), a guy hammered in and compound fractured his left femur in front of us. Fortunately, one of my teammates was an EMT and went right to his aid. While I didn't interfere, I did notice it was blowing pretty hard. So I cutaway the main ASAP, then helped my teammate get the guy out if his rig. Since I couldn't be of any more direct aid, I got out of the way and encuraged others to do the same.

Bob

[riggerrob 563]

I checked "trained but not certified" since I took plenty of first aid courses twenty years ago, but have not done any refresher training in decades ... since leaving the military.

I carried an aweful lot of stretchers ... back when round mains were fashionable.

This past summer, I responded to two accidents, but did not need first aid skills either time.
I did not arrive - at the scene until five minutes after the first accident. Four staffers - including a full-trained life guard - were already attending to the victim. Manifest told me to relay information (via cell phone and radio) to manifest and the control tower. I also directed DZ staff to steer ambulances and fire trucks.

The second accident saw me walking through rough terrain and tall grass to find a skydiver who had broken an ankle landing in the horse pasture adjacent to the DZ. Since he already knew that his ankle was injured, we agreed to sit quietly until professional help arrived. Then I unlocked a gate and directed EMTs to the victim.

[smokejmprwannab 0]

Firefighter and EMT-Basic

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If you see someone doing stupid and unsafe things, tell them. Or tell someone that will. Help people see their mistakes and learn from them.

When an accident does happen, make sure someone calls 911 and do it right then. But don't overload the 911 center by having every person with a cell phone call.

There's a lot that an un-trained person can do.
- call 911 and get help coming

- stand by the road to signal the ambulance and lead them to the patient

- if there are no trained people to help the patient, the 911 operator may be able to give some instruction on what to do.

- it wouldn't be a bad idea to have someone that is actually with the patient make another 911 call to give more information. (The operator might only get "we need an ambulance" from the person that makes the first call. More information about what happened to the patient helps the incoming crews know what to expect... kind of like a dirt dive).


-Michael

[ElJosh 0]

I am a combat life saver in the army which is a cooler title than it really is. I can give IVs to soldiers but not to the general public. I would get sued ASAP. All I would do is CPR/Rescue breath, Call 911, and crack your next for you!

DS #149
Yes I only have 3 jumps...it's the magic number dude.

[VincentVL. 0]

I can give CPR and first aid. Fact of the matter is, there's little or nothing you can do about:
*spine/neck injury
*brain damage
*internal bleeding

So if a skydiver has a piece of chicken stuck in his throat or when his heart has stopped I can help. Otherwhise I'm no good.

[jtval 0]

Very true but I wonder how many people might try to give water to someone with possible internal bleeding.

a broken neck can be fixed with a tourniquet, right.


there is a time to help when someone tries to eat the ground.

Basically, that type of help means taking controll of the scene and getting people to stop doing the wrong shit.
Checking for vitals
stopping external bleeding (if theres no possibility of furthering damage)
checking airways etc....

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