All members of Cambridgeshire Army Cadet Force, adults and cadets, learn first aid. This teaching leads to our members repeatedly making a real difference in emergency situations. Here are two recent accounts from cadets at St Neots Detachment, No 2 Company.
St Neots Cadets' First Aid Actions
Cadet Lottie Carter
‘My friends and I were listening to music and dancing in the forest near us. One of my friends tripped over a tree root sticking out of the ground, hit her head on a tree branch and then fell on to the floor. She got up and said that she was fine. We then continued to have fun and dance again, but a few minutes later, she stopped dancing and said that she has a really bad headache and felt a bit sick. We gave her some water to help her feel better. After a couple of minutes she said that she was feeling worse. Quite soon after this she fell to the ground and vomited.’
‘All of my friends began to panic and did not know what to do. After my initial panic, I remembered my first aid training from cadets. So, I then put her in the recovery position to prevent her from choking on her sick, and I put my jumper under her head to make her feel more comfortable. We then called her mum, and an ambulance to get her some help. The ambulance soon arrived and did some tests, and we found out she had a concussion. They then took her to the hospital to double check she was ok.’
Cdt LCpl Isla Martin
'I recently had to put my first aid training into practice, and for an unexpected person, my sister. We were in the Savoy Theatre in London, which is underground, quite small, hot, and stuffy.
The performance was nearly at the end when I looked over at my sister as she was bending down, I thought she’d dropped something, as she ended up leaning on me with one arm near the floor. It was then I realised that she’d passed out, and then she started flailing her arms and jerking. I immediately realised that she was having an epileptic seizure. Luckily, I lightly held onto her, as when the seizure finished she collapsed, so I supported her head and mum supported her other side.'
'When my sister came round, she was completely disorientated, she didn’t know where she was, and then she got really upset and started to panic. I spoke to her quietly, explained where we were, what had happened, and said that we would get help as soon as possible. I asked the lady next to me to tell an usher what had happened and to ask for ice packs and water. I kept talking to my sister to make sure she stayed awake as she was drowsy and was feeling sick. The ushers came with the water, ice packs and first aid kit and we sat in the theatre for ages until my sister recovered enough to be able to climb the stairs to go outside for fresh air.'
'When we got outside, it helped a bit, and we got a taxi to the station. Unfortunately she was sick, but we had a plastic bag the usher had given us. I kept her talking again and calmed her down and cleaned her up. We caught the train home and my sister slept all the way, although we did keep waking her up to check she hadn’t passed out.'
'Mum told me that she was really impressed with me, as I kept calm, was extremely focused on what to do with my sister, kept checking on her and also calmed mum down as she’d started to panic in the theatre, when she couldn’t get out to get help. It was an eventful theatre trip, but I was really pleased I’d learned first aid or I wouldn’t have had a clue what to do.'
Detachment Commander SSI Dale Irving said “It’s great to see our first aid training making such a difference in these incidents. Fantastic work, well done LCpl Martin and Cdt Carter. Thanks to all the first aid instructors for the important work they do.”
Article and photos with thanks to SSI Irving.
