When you run because you hear your kid scream.
Truth is, I’m one of those annoying people who stops to check on people in the street.
I asked the woman curled up in child’s pose on the beach if she was okay. I stopped to check on the man sleeping in a doorway. I saw a man leaning against a tree as I drove past and thought something looked a bit off. I pulled over suddenly just as he collapsed to the ground.
I notice stuff that's a bit odd. I’m not afraid to step in, and I know I can help or get help if needed. And it annoys my family, haha.
But it hasn’t always been that way. There was a time when I didn’t have the knowledge and skills I have now.
I remember the moment, like it was yesterday, when I decided I would never be that unprepared again.
Many years ago, while visiting Grandma's house, I heard my oldest boy scream.
It was a blood-curdling scream unlike anything I had ever heard before. I ran from the kitchen and found him in the backyard with a stick stuck in his right eye.
It was horrific.
The boys had invented a new Robin Hood game (it was the early ’90s).
I had one overwhelming thought: I don’t know what to do here.
I grabbed a facecloth, wrapped it around the stick, had him hold it, got him into the car and drove like a lunatic down Lincoln Road at six o’clock in the evening. There wasn't the traffic there is now. I remember hoping a police officer would see me, pull me over and help me. None around.
When we reached the hospital, I left the car running outside the A&E doors and ran inside carrying him into reception.
I told the triage nurse what happened. She got a doctor immediately, then offered to park my car so I could stay with my boy. Bless her. They gave him pain relief and did what they could to settle him while we waited for the ophthalmologist to arrive.
As I sat rocking him in my arms, I kept apologising to the doctors because I hadn’t known what to do. All I had done was put a facecloth around the stick and get him to the hospital.
They reassured me.
“At least you didn’t try to pull it out.”
Honestly, that had never even occurred to me. Thank goodness.
Knowing what I know now, I would call 111, support the stick without putting pressure on his eye, and follow their instructions.
But I didn’t know any of that then.
That was the moment I made myself a promise:
I will never not know what to do again.
I am forever grateful for the people who knew what to do and helped my boy (and me) that night, and for the many people who have helped our family on other nights.
From that moment on, I made sure I learned what to do, first as a volunteer and later through paid work. A few years later, I began teaching other people the skills I had once desperately needed myself.
First aid training doesn’t mean you will never feel frightened or uncertain. It doesn’t mean you will have all the answers, all of the time.
It means you're more likely to notice, stop, call for the right help and begin doing something useful until that help arrives.
Sometimes first aid begins with CPR, controlling bleeding or protecting an injured eye. Sometimes it begins with one annoying person stopping to ask:
“Are you okay?”
Today is World First Aid Day. Notice. Stop. Check. Help. The more people who know first aid, the safer we all are.
I didn’t know what to do that night all those years ago. You don’t have to be in that position either.
If it feels right to learn today, we’d love to have you at our next Little Ones & Big Questions course. This baby and child first aid session is on 31 October at La Vida in Upper Riccarton, from 10 am to 2 pm.
Gail
Head of Training | City First Aid
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