Re: First Aid kit - expiration of items?

"Martyn H" <Martyn.Hodson@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:352c8b3f-3e31-4e38-8389-3f454c9dcf5d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 May 6, 9:31 pm, Ian <ian.gro...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On 6 May, 13:29, Martyn H <Martyn.Hod...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> > On May 6, 2:34 am, Nick Temple-Fry
<N...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
> > wrote:
>
> > <snip>
>
> > > Well I'd suggest a bit of wound glue (first aid in any boots),
>
> > wound closure is a 'surgical' procedure to be undertaken by trained ,
> > registered Health Professionals not the average yottie in Uk coastal
> > waters
>
> Why do Boots sell it, then? And what difference does registration
> make?

I guess in the same way that the Co-op sell wa****ng machines but I am 
neither
qualified or able to use one safely. Registration is a bit of a side issue

in my opinion,
it's a device to ensure that those registered work to certain standards 
which
must be maintained by continuing professional development ( CPD ), and to 
ensure
public safety. The Act also makes it illegal to claim to be a registrant 
when you are not
and also protects the use of certain titles like physiotherapist for 
example. You can view
all of the registers online, HPC and GMC.

None of that helps if you're offshore and have a wound to deal with unless

your training specifically
covers it! Glue, again IMO, is a bit permanent for a repair on a bobbing 
yacht  - I would have thought removable
steri-strips might be better. My guess is also that you are very unlikely
to 
be on the receiving end of a lawsuit
unless you clearly acted negligently. If you are unqualified but do the
best 
you can for the patient at the time
you are in a better position than a qualified professional who may well be

deemed by a court to have known
that what he was doing was wrong. Having said that, a degree of common
sense 
is required of course!
This particularly applies in the case of serious injury or cardiac arrest 
where to do nothing will
result in the death of the patient. Hence my suggestion to have a pocket 
first aid book aboard and
refer to it before trying first aid - although if the patient is spurting 
blood or not breathing, deal with that before referring to
the words of wisdom!

CPR needs doing sooner rather than later, and contrary to earlier advice 
from the pro's years ago it is now
recommended to sup****t a failing heart rather than waiting for the heart
to 
stop completely. But please,
look up the details before you start jumping on patients and blaming me
when 
they accuse you of assault
because they were just having a kip at the time.

I think we should all do a regular Basic Life Sup****t course if we're
going 
to skipper a yacht
almost anywhere. On land help may be too late arriving let alone at sea. 
Even on the Broads
one can be over thirty minutes from a useful shore base, plenty of time
for 
a heart patient to die on you.

As an example, a chap at our sailing club died of a heart attack, less
than 
a minute away from
trained help by rescue boat. He suffered an attack on the first leg of a 
race while he was single handed
and the boat turned into the bank near some anglers. They didn't realise 
what had happened but
waved for our rescue boat. The rescue boat didn't realise the seriousness
as 
the guy was still breathing
on their arrival, although unconscious. Rather than pull him into the RIB 
they chose to leave him
in his Mirror and tow him slowly back to the clubhouse where we were 
waiting. He was pretty much
gone by then but we had a good go, myself, my wife and another member who 
was a doctor. The ambulance
happened to be passing the end of our road by chance and arrived in 10 
minutes but sadly he'd gone.

I guess we wouldn't have saved him even if he'd been brought back quicker 
but I've often wondered.
And he wanted me to crew for him that day but I wasn't dressed for it and 
said no. I still feel a bit bad
about that.

TonyB