It never happens when you expect it.
Yesteday, I was attending the Norwegian County Championship in Track & Field with my oldest son. During one of the sprints, the young gentleman in the lead, suddenly churned and fell to the ground, screaming in pain. I saw it happening and was first on spot to assist. Assessing him, I realized it was likelt to be muscular sprain, and mores spesifically he likely tore his psoas or another nearby muscle/tendon. This must be incredibly painful, yet not life threatening. So I asked one of the organizers to call 116117 (The Emergency Room, legevakt), applied ice and requested a stretcher to carry him away from the views of all the spectators. As I was working on that, the crowd suddenly started shouting and pointing at another spot approx.50m away. Finding patient one to be safe, I chose to leave him even if we still hadn`t moved him away from the spot. Asked some others to stay and watch over him. Ran over to the next situation to find a young girl, maybe 6-7 years, lying on the ground in cramps/spasms. One guy was already sitting in front of her. As I sat down I asked one of the organizors to call 113 and get an ambulance asap. At the same time, the spasms stopped and she came to herself, opened her eyes and asked what happened. The guy (who was her father) told us she was leaning over the fence, and when she turned around her eyes rolled and she went unconscious in an instant. According to her father, it had never happened before and there was no history of any related illness. I started talking to her and observing vital signs. She was responsive, breathing normally and managed to keep a normal conversation. Her eyes followed my lead and I couldn`t find any immidiate abnormalities with my level of skills. We got one person to sit and hold her legs high (to support circulation) and wrapped her in blankets to keep her warm. Assessing her further, I found that she was bleeding a little bit from the side of her head caused by the sudden fall. The wound didn`t look too bad, no serious swelling and I covered it up using a sterile dressing. In the continuation I just sat in front of her, holding her hand and keeping her attention, to notice any changes and try to comfort her by talking about different things, to keep her mind of the trauma. I didn`t want to move her on her side as I was uncertain if she could have hurt her neck and I also wanted to prioritize circulation keeping her legs high. When the ambulance took over, I pulled back and reverted to patient one. He had by this time been moved on the stretcher into a separate room. Continued my conversation with him and assessed him further. He was warm across the entire legs suggesting good circulation, still fully conscious and in very much pain, screaming quite loudly (which is somehow a good sign as it guarantees his pulse is beating and that he is still breathing). Pain directly located in the psoas area, and couldn`t lift his leg even an inch - which supported the muscular / tendon tearing as a possible condition. Waiting for ambulance number two, a MD came to the scene and agreed to my initial assessment. To ease his pain, we stablized his legs using a rolled up foam pad under his knees, that reduced the stretch of the psoas effectively. This eased the pain a little bit. Upon arrival of the ambulance, I pulled back on that situation too.
Even if I may not have solved the situation perfectly, I think I prioritized the escalation to an acceptable level based on my comptency. I also think that because I took some form of lead, it broke the passiveness and made other people snap away from the confusion that often rises during unexpected events like this. Both patients were assessed for vital signs, provided basic first aid and professional help was called for quickly. Patient one was not under a life threatening condition, so I decided calling 116117 was sufficient. For patient number two though, it was far beyond my competency to assess - and could possibly be a very serious condition, hence I asked them to call 113. I hope they both feel better today and recover fully!
If you haven`t attended a first aid training in a while. Make sure to prioritize it. When something happens, it`s usually not expected and the person or people in need will most likely rely on someone else to help them. Even if you only know a little bit, in many cases that`s enough until professional help arrives.
My own learnings:
-I left my phone behind, so I was relying on someone else to make the calls. Alway carry your phone readily available. Preferably using the app Hjelp113 that sends your co-ordinates by default to the ER services. Saves a lot of time!
-I did not check the area for first aid equipment when I arrived. Even if I had no first aider responsibilities, making yourself familiar with that is always a good idea when you spend time in new places. I was relying on someone else to find it for me.
-Also in general: if you go to the same mall or training center every week as examples- make yourself familiar with the position of defibrillators and other first aid equipment. You save so much time if you don`t have to search for it when you need it.
-If you asked me prior to the event, I would probbaly assume someone old would be most likely to sustain any serious harm. In this case, both patients were children. Never expect anything, be prepared for everything.
-Don`t expect a trained first aid team to jump in when something happens at an event. There may not be one. And it may be you who have to take the lead. Doing something is better than nothing.
-Calm down. Take a deep breathe and focus on the important stuff first: DR`s ABC: Danger= is it safe to approach? R= Responsiveness. Are they responsive? S= Send for help. Get professionals on site as soon as possible. A=Airways. Make sure they have open airways. B=Breathing. Are they breathing normally? And C= circulation. Any signs of bleeding, are they pale, cold, etc.?
-Use 113`s support actively . They will ask you to verify the important things on the call.
Have a safe and healthy week!
All the best
J?rgen