The disastrous flooding in Queensland, NSW and Victoria distracted the country?s attention and whilst all around us has been flooded with water, we have been flooded with activity; social, community, family and work. Stand aside 2010, 2011 is well underway.
January is usually a fairly quiet time of the year for us. Most organisations are running with a skeleton staff, traffic on the streets flows easily at peak hour and life is usually pretty quiet. Ordinarily, this is a great time to rearrange the filing system, update equipment, configure new software and so on, but not this year.
For some reason, 2011 has started off busier than ever, with community events to deal with, a high number of new client enquiries, some birthdays (my son?s 18th birthday, my daughter?s 21st) and much more. In fact there is so much I could have written about in January, but frankly I haven?t had the time!
Saving a Life with an iPhone
Here is an example: I few weeks ago I decided to look for some new routes for my morning jog, and I found a nice path that goes along beside a creek a few kilometres from home.
Early in the morning last Friday I set out along this path and at about 4km from home I thought I saw a person lying on the ground near the path. As I got closer, I realised it was indeed a man, face down – he looked like he?d been jogging.
The recovery position is on the side with the head positioned to keep the airway clear and the arms and legs locked for stability
I stopped and checked for a pulse – it was very weak. He was about 70, unconscious and bleeding on the nose, forehead and ear.
For a long time now, my mates have made fun of my practice of carrying my phone when I run, (I use the Nike app to track my runs), but this time it came in extra handy. I put the bloke in the recovery position and called 000.
The system worked perfectly, I got straight onto the ambulance service, but unfortunately I had no idea where I was as there are no houses or streets visible from the creek. Fortunately the iPhone has GPS, so I was able to give our exact location.
It was 15 minutes before the ambulance arrived and in that time he?d started to regain consciousness but wasn?t completely lucid. He had taken a big hit but had no memory of what happened. I left him in their expert hands and headed back home.
It is a long time since I did a first aid course but you never know when a little first aid will come in handy. The incident made me realise it is about time I did a refresher course – so I?ll add that to my to-do list for 2011.
Yet another item for my to-do list… the year just gets busier and busier!