‘Oh my gosh, are you OK? Here take a seat? Are you hurt?

‘No I’m fine. Really, I’m fine.

‘Are you sure? That was quite a tumble.’

‘It’s just my knees. They give out on me sometimes, but I’m fine.’

That was pretty much how the concerned conversation went when one of our friends fell down at one of our get togethers. You know how it is. A little embarrassed after a public fall. Lots of fussing. Lots of concern…Then we went back to what we were doing. We discovered a few days later that the lady in question had to go to hospital because she had broken her wrist. And we missed it. Granted, we were looking at her knees…but still, how do you miss a broken wrist?

After that incident we collectively determined, probably quite rightly, that we are not very good at First Aid. So it was decided, after a bit of story telling about how difficult it is to get Emergency Services out this way, that we ought to do something about our First Aid response.

Hence, on the 31st of August, 2024 a number of people gathered at Awhi Tu Collective home base to be taken through the steps of ‘How to save a life’ or, as it is more commonly known, a First Aid course.

And what a day it was.

Our instructor for the day was Sunia Schaff from Priority One First Aid. He is a former Ambulance Officer who is now enjoying life instructing others on how to keep themselves, their whanau and the odd random stranger, safe.

Attending this course made me realize how important it is to keep up to date with First Aid. Participants were telling stories about rural incidents and on farm accidents. Living the rural life means being ready for anything, including emergencies. When an accident happens and you are there, you act. Well, first you assess and then you act.

We learnt that.

I used to work in a medical field and, although the basics haven’t changed drastically, there is so much that one can forget after a year or two of living a life without incident.

Sunia provided ample time for us to do hands on practice, a good strategy for getting things set in your mind. We made slings for potentially broken arms, strapped wrists, found pulses, assessed ankles. We assessed stroke victims, managed unconscious people and discovered that defibrillators come with written instructions in the pack (thank goodness for that) and, of course, practiced performing CPR.

Our Collective chose to do the the 6-hour course. It was quite a tiring day, but so worthwhile. Sunia is a very good facilitator. We all left feeling a lot more confident about our abilities. At the end of the day we all received First Aid Certificates that are valid for two years, although we are going to Sunia back sooner than that for those who could not make it to this session. Keep on eye on our Event Calendar for those dates.