I Had an Incident at Work

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  • unshelledpilot

    Sharpshooter
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    Jun 27, 2014
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    Hammond
    Hello All

    On Sunday the 17th I had an incident at work. One of my employees slipped and fell on her back pretty hard. I was in another part of the store when I heard her scream. I put down what I was doing and came to see what the problem was, and I found her on the floor with a few others gathered around her. I asked her how she felt, and she told me there was a shooting pain down her left arm, her shoulder blade hurt and she might have hit her head. She is pregnant, so I immediately called an ambulance. While we waited for EMT's to arrive, I tried to keep her mind off the pain by asking about the baby, ultrasounds and all that. A few minutes later, paramedics showed up and took her away. She and the baby are fine, she ended up having a deep bruise on her shoulder blade and a swollen wrist from trying to catch herself on the way down.

    Looking back and having had VERY basic medical training, I felt like I froze, and there was more I could have done. Am I being too hard on myself? Medical people: was there more I could have done? I ask because I want to be better prepared in case I need to help someone later.

    Thanks
    Pilot
     

    Mr Evilwrench

    Quantum Mechanic
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    Aug 18, 2011
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    You did fine. There's only so far your training can take you. You have to have the mindset to be able to detach yourself from the situation and use your skills. In an emergency situation, this is difficult. You've heard of the tunnel vision etc. that people get in a shooting scenario? It works the same way in any stressful event. If it effects you that way, the only way to overcome it is with experience. May you never have occasion to gain that experience.
     

    hoosierdoc

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    Galt's Gulch
    Nope. Keep them still. If they have numbness or shooting pains have them lay still until backboard arrives. Keep them comfortable. Blankets if cold, verbal distraction, etc while someone is placed in charge of summoning help. Other than holding pressure on a bleeder, immobilizing a spine or extremity injury, or doing CPR, first aid is pretty limited for serious events, even for trained folks.

    you did good and she should name the kid after you :):

    Edit: the triple post agreement at the same time! Hilarious. And welcome to :ingo:
     

    Rookie

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    Sep 22, 2008
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    Nope. Keep them still. If they have numbness or shooting pains have them lay still until backboard arrives. Keep them comfortable. Blankets if cold, verbal distraction, etc while someone is placed in charge of summoning help. Other than holding pressure on a bleeder, immobilizing a spine or extremity injury, or doing CPR, first aid is pretty limited for serious events, even for trained folks.

    you did good and she should name the kid after you :):

    Edit: the triple post agreement at the same time! Hilarious. And welcome to :ingo:

    This guy thinks he's a doctor or something.
     

    Alamo

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    Oct 4, 2010
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    Sounds like you have motivation to attend a first aid course! And sounds like overall you did good.

    In the mean time, as a general rule:

    1. Do a "Scene-Size Up". This means quickly figure out the big picture, what is going on here. Figure out how many patients, who they are, and the scale of response needed (e.g. ambulance? fire/rescue? police? ) If she screamed because she got a paper cut is a different order of magnitude than she screamed because a 1500 lb piece of equipment fell on her. One calls for sending someone to get the boo-boo kit, the other calling for fire/rescue. It is better to call for help early and then cancel them enroute than wait and find out later you really need that ambulance NOW.

    2. Scene safety: Make sure whatever caused her to be injured is not going to injure you as well. E.g. if she slipped on a banana peel, don't you step on the banana peel, and don't let others do so. Take action to keep yourself and others safe. If you need to stop traffic, do so. If you need to block off the area, have people do that, etc, etc. Remember, if you or someone else get hurt trying to help her, you made the situation worse, not better.
    Here's a rather grim example of that: CA: 2 Women Electrocuted Saving Driver, Others Suffer Electricity Injuries | Electrical Accidents Blog

    3. Take care of life threats. If she is not breathing or her heart is not beating, then CPR and an AED are in order. (That of course, requires training). If she is bleeding badly, stop the bleeding (How? more training!). If you have any suspicion at all that the head (brain), neck, or spine have been injured, keep her still, immobile. This generally means you need to hold the head and neck in a neutral position (again, more training). People can't help moving their heads, they want to look around, they move while they talk, it's really difficult to hold your head absolutely still all by yourself if it doesn't hurt. A fast way to assess if someone is having a problem is ask for her name and what happened to her. If she can lucidly tell you that, then you know the heart and lungs are working (for now anyway) and the brain is connected. You may still need to plug leaks.

    4. In most urban/work situations, ambulances are pretty close, so after you take care of the three items above, you basically just need to keep the patient protected, still, warm, and as calm as possible until the cavalry arrives. Which sounds like that's pretty much what you did. Good job.

    5. Go find a first aid training course. :)
     

    unshelledpilot

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    Jun 27, 2014
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    Thanks for the advice. Most of the training I've had was from the Corps and has been focused on GSW's, torniquet, chest wounds and the like. No real training on what seems like the simple stuff like neck immobilization. I remember being in the moment and thinking "nothing I know can help her, what do I do?" I guess I'll need to take some basic first aid courses.
     

    hoosierdoc

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    After you had that thought you just did what good hearted people do, engage them and distract from the thoughts. Speaks highly of your character.
     

    HoughMade

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    Oct 24, 2012
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    In this situation, you did great.

    Calling the ambulance first, good move. Next, A-B-C, Airway, Breathing, Circulation. In her case, she was conscious, was breathing and there was no evidence of shock or of other circulation issues. Nothing more to do, leave it to the professionals and keep her calm. Rule of thumb- no movement unless they will die without it. Let the EMTs handle movement.
     

    shibumiseeker

    Grandmaster
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    Nov 11, 2009
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    near Bedford on a whole lot of land.
    The biggest part of my job (as an EMT) is controlling the scene and having a good bedside manner. Yeah, there's the sexy stuff that makes for dramatic scenes in movies, but that really is a small fraction of what I do.

    To repeat, get some more training so that next time you won't be questioning whether you did all you could. In this case you did fine.
     

    Hawkeye

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    Jul 25, 2010
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    MIght want to consider Red Cross First Aid/CPR training for yourself/employees.

    As the others said, I think you did fine in this instance.
     

    actaeon277

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    Nov 20, 2011
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    Pretty much what everyone else said.
    Take a class.
    You did good. Sometimes, merely keeping everyone calm and keeping the from doing stupid stuff is the right thing.
     

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