Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

We’ve now passed the half way mark and have covered all the trauma possibilities and how to stabalize them.  We can deal with burns, fractures, dislocations & cold/heat illnesses.  I’m sure if I look at my book there will be more but right now the lights are out and everyone is asleep.

We had more simulations which are beginning to take longer as we’re expected to follow through with remdial action as well as initial diagnosis which was the focus of early scenarious.  We finished off day 5 with a scenario involving 5 patients where we had to organize and respond to an explosion.  We had various issues to deal with.  One patient had two broken legs.  Another had a stick impaled in his arm.  Another had a dislocated arm and burns.  Another was delerious with inhalation burns and vomiting with rapidly deteriorating signes.  Another had a chest puncture wound.  We had to coordinate 5 separate teams allocating finite resources (including rescuers) among them as more was learned.  A lot of fun and much learned.

Today we have a day off to release the pressure building in our brains.  We’re going to be waking early and heading off to climb the trail up to Humphries Peak.  It’s a 3,000 foot climb and we hope to be rewarded with great views as this is Arizona’s highest point.  Interestingly one of the guys on the course has recently been involved with repairing the trail we’ll be on.  We should be down by midday when we intend to head off to Meteor crater and do some sight seeing.

All for now.  Alarm just went off and nobody stirred.  Back to me being Mr. Popular as I wake up the snorers.

Already it feels like we’ve been at it for days on end. We are covering a lot.

Day 1 basically taught us how to assess a victim. To check an overall situation, to check for life threatening issues, to check from head to toe, to measure vital signs and to record medical histories. We also learned how do minimize the potential threats posed by the unique legal system here in the US.

Day 2 we’ve refined our learning from day 1, we’ve learned to perform CPR, to straighten victims in non-ideal positions and to maneuver injured parties. We also learned about spinal injuries and how to immobilize a patient in a litter.

In amongst all this we’ve had numerous hands on scenarios often involving the use of make up and preprepared stories to create a scene for rescuers to analyse and determine appropriate issues. Each day, class runs from 8 to 5 with an hour lunch. In the evening we are encourage to read to reinforce what was learned during the day as well as practice what we’ve learned.

We’re all very much immersed in the training and enjoying ourselves despite feeling already a little mentally exhausted.

We did have plans to put in a little hiking in the evenings but this has not worked out due to thunderstorms which have crept in each afternoon. We’ve managed to use the time quite productively though – I somehow wonder if we could have fit much else in.

All very good.

The image stuck in my mind from today is from our CPR practice sessions. Today we learned to perform CPR at the right frequency by listening to music – in this case “Another one bites the dust” by Queen – dark humour to say the least. A third of the class at a time would be practicing on dummies to the sound of the music. Looking at the entire class you would see 10 people at once preforming CPR in time to the music – quite an amusing and memorable scene.

First I hope I never have to perform CPR but if I do, I really hope I don’t start singing this song. Might be a little alarming for the patient. Fortunately the beat for “Staying Alive” works just as well.

The last trappings of my working life have been handed in. My work pass, my secure ID (which let’s be log in from home), my office keys and my Blackberry – this being the combined godsend and curse of modern work. Now I am fully detached ready for what’s to come. How do I feel? Nervous. Excited. Ready.