The right course of action

9:10am Thursday 14th August 2008

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Pub chat often involves mulling over hypothetical situations and how you would react if ever they were to arise in reality.

What would you do if your football team won the league or if you won the lottery? Questions which can be debated, considered and dismissed at leisure.

But what would you do if you were to step out of that pub and someone was violently attacked, stabbed and left bleeding on the pavement? There’s not time to worry about coming up with a considered course of action. The response has to be immediate and correct, and that’s what worries me.

Despite passing my first aid proficiency badge at cubs, my knowledge of emergency treatment stretches to being able to apply a plaster roughly over an injured area of skin.

Speaking to the organisers of Safe and Sound, I realised the drastic need for more of us to have a grasp of basic medical procedures, especially at a time when there continue to be such prominent instances of violence and attacks.

The two women who run the course were passionate about getting teenagers on board to learn the essential life saving skills they feel are needed on the streets nowadays.

What is unnerving, is the level of acceptance I felt to the line about the need in the current climate. It is a shame to hear their realisation that their work isn’t going to stop knife crime, but that these reactionary measures will be necessary when the incidents do occur.

Worryingly so many teenagers wouldn’t know what to do if someone was stabbed, and a high percentage would have carried out action that would be more detrimental to the injury.

It is therefore paramount that as many young people as possible are versed in how to carry out the first aid that may enable victims of violent crime to have a greater chance of surviving and not become yet another fatal statistic in the news.