Have seen many heavy trauma accidents in my line of work and we get good training to deal with these situations.

From what's been said he did the best thing by comforting this poor man in his last moments of life.

Moving him would have probably been instantly fatal.

Unless you know exactly what you are doing releasing any sort of crush injury is very dangerous even if there is no blood.

A work mate had his arm crushed in a conveyor drive it was over a hour before we found him, it took the medical services over around one and a half hours to reach us.
All this time Howard was screaming and pleading with us to release him. His arm was about a couple of inches thick, dislocated at the shoulder and elbow and streched about a foot longer than normal. We got him out when the medics had stabalised him, he lost his arm in hospital but would almost certainly have died if we had released him.

Tell you friend he had great courage doing what he did and should be proud of himself.

Lee

 

Couldn't agree more. I can't speak for other areas but in Avon if you call the ambulance to an RTA they call us (Fire) straight away. By and large in most rural areas a Fire Engine will arrive more quickly than an ambulance because of the way resources are located.

Brendy has pointed up the limitations of my advice before. Just because you can't move someone it doesn't mean you can't touch them. If blood is gushing out then put some pressure on it. Someone with very basic skills and equipment can do quite alot to help, by maintaining airway etc. but it does require some training.

Food for thought: In Wiltshire the Police don't seem to refer to 'accidents' they use 'collision' or 'incident'the theory being almost ALL road 'accidents' are someone's fault, so not really accidents at all...

Brendy, you aren't the lucky chap in Hampshire who's got a WRX as his response car by any chance??

 

Reidy,
It's hard for me to answer this but I'm gonna try,1, You are a very brave man and be very proud of yourself. 2,I myself was nearly killed 6 years ago by a drunk driver I was so badly trapped for 3 hours in the wreckage The paramedics thought I was going to die from shock, My right leg was smashed and the firefighters fought for 3 hours to free me, but my worst fear that my back was broken, thankfully it wasn't I must be one of the lucky ones because as my accident happened 2 off duty paramedics were in the traffic going the other way, like other people reading your message it has upset me reading it and bought back very bad memorys, the guy that hit me walked away I had to learn to walk again even now sometimes when I hear sirens my stomach churns.
3,The frustration you must have gone through must have been hell but at least you tried so don't beat yourself up about it, be very proud of yourself. Can't seem to say anymore as I feel I'm getting upset, well done for being you and for trying.
Cheers
Colin

 

There has been a link to this message put on my usual haunt.
I had to sign up and pass on my condolences and congratulations, to the guy who was first on the scene, for doing something because something is always better than nothing.
I have to say that the guy did extremly well to keep his head, alot of people would not even bother'd there ***** to help another person in trouble.

The first aid courses i have done always say DO NOT move people will back injures UNLESS there is a biggar threat to life??
Which was the biggar threat, the injury or the car??
Tell him that he did a good job in comforting the guy and that i hope he would do it again!!

I hope that he can get over the shock of that weekend!!

Fletch

 

It's a horrible thing to come across. I've never been to a really bad accident and hopefully I never will, but I hope I'd be quick enough to actually react to it and not just sit and stare.

Brendy's made some good points, backing up what I learned on the st. John's ambulance course regarding priorities (Airway, Breathing and Circulation). I'd reccomend anyone who can spare the time attend one of these courses and pay attention, they're basic but there's a lot of stuff I learned that I just hadn't guessed at beforehand.

Regarding crush injuries - I was told to release the injured limb if it had been trapped for less than ten minutes and leave it to the paramedics otherwise, other hazards (Fire, spinal injury etc) notwithstanding. Is this ok? I'd appreciate Brendy's opinion.

Fire extinguishers are a f*cking excellent idea. £15 got me one good enough to put out a fire in a truck engine (Not mine, but the chap with the truck was bloody grateful). I replaced it with two refillable ones twice the size, one for each car. Don't worry about washing the powder out of seats either, most new ones use soium bicarbonate instead of the old BCF powder, and a quick wet hoovering will get it out.

[Edited by Turbo_Six - 5/6/2002 4:48:33 PM]