What’s your guilty secret?? (Keep it clean!!)

Mine is Casualty – my Saturday nights are not the same when it’s not on! I usually train on a Saturday, so I save my bandage re-rolling for the occasion so I don’t feel like it’s a complete waste of time, but I am well aware that the medical scenarios and sometimes the treatment they provide can be somewhat unrealistic in comparison to real life.

On almost every course I run, people are shocked (excuse the pun!) to find out that you can’t shock a flatline heart rhythm, that defibrillators do not restart hearts, and that only 1 in 10 people (on average) will survive an out of hospital cardiac arrest. They are surprised to find out how hard you need to compress the chest during CPR (have you noticed the bent arms and floppy manner in some TV programmes and films?).

Many are also unaware that heart attacks and cardiac arrests are not the same thing (heart attacks symptoms include chest pain, left sided pain (arms, jaw, shoulder etc.), strong feeling of indigestion, difficulty breathing, nausea, vomiting, pale, cold and clammy etc. – but the casualty is conscious and breathing. Yes, it’s an emergency, but they don’t need CPR (yet – but it’s worth quietly obtaining the nearest defibrillator just in case and you will be instructed to do this by the 999 call handler). A person in cardiac arrest is unconscious and either not breathing at all or breathing is not effective – and they need CPR immediately and a defibrillator as quickly as possible.

I’m glad that the media does portray CPR and using a defibrillator, but I do wish that drama programmes took more responsibility for educating the public by showing realistic CPR and defibrillator use! Better to learn something than nothing from these programmes, but you might be grateful for proper hands-on training if you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to carry out CPR.  Find the opportunity to attend local community CPR and defibrillator training, or look out for an Emergency First Aid at Work, First Aid at Work or Basic Life Support course to keep your skills up to date and your confidence levels high – and so you know when you should shout at the TV for prioritising drama over reality!!