Re: [Paddlewise] accident scenerio

I think I learned a little about this kind of thing in 30 years of
coppery, 14 of which were spent as a traffic cop investigating accidents.

One of the things I learned is never let let the injured party go off on
their own, always send someone with them. Don't let an injured party
drive. The reason for this is that shock can hit after a long delay and
they can lose consciousness in seconds, when it does. If they're driving
a car, hurrying to a hospital, this can cause more serious injuries than
the initial one(s).

Two, after you take care of the obvious injury, _always_ check the rest
of the body for other injury. While you take care of the Paddle in the
Leg, thing, if you have someone else who is experienced in first aid,
have them check for breathing, heart beat, spinal injury, etc. at the
same time you are controlling the bleeding.

In some cases the most important thing you can do is ignore the bleeding
victims and stabilize the scene. In other words make sure a truck doesn't
come driving thru' the accident scene killing you and all the victims.
This is most applicable in hiway accidents but the principle is the same
in getting an injured person off the icy cold water into a place where
they can be sheltered from the wind and kept warm as possible.

Never trust the victim to know where they are hurt. I've seen people with
visible compound fractures of the legs trying to walk, with no idea that
they were hurt. Check for their injuries yourself. Work from head to toe
and back again, _twice_, if you have time. Fortuneately, most of us are
not doctors and are protected from law suits for missing injuries, but
one doesn't want to have to live with knowing they missed something serious.

Fair winds and happy bytes,
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