News Article

First aid trainees get first hand experience in trauma


1/20/2011 3:21:22 PM


Shawn Warren, Mathew Dawe and Brad Johannessen are put through their paces during last week’s practical portion of Wilderness and Remote First Aid training.

Reprinted with permission from the Northern Pen
Published on January 17th, 2011
Juris Graney

As Rick Hynes and James Payne pushed their way through the thicket they could hear a man bellow in pain.

Max Lono was clutching his right hand. He looked groggy and disorientated, as one would expect of a person who had just lobbed off their thumb —albeit it a rubber one — with a small hatchet.

As quick as you like they had Mr. Lono sitting down and were wrapping his hand to stem the bleeding. They had also located the thumb and placed it in a plastic bag full of ice.

Across the way, Mathew Dawe, Brad Johannessen and Shawn Warren had discovered a prone blond female in the dense scrub. Her name - according to the men - was “Manny Quinn” and she had just suffered a heart attack.

The three took turns in administering CPR to keep her alive and despite what the blue sky would have you believe, course teacher Jason Rowbottom ensured the students that the weather had indeed turned bad, with snow drifts pummeling them all and temperatures dropping rapidly.

Further on, a trekker had taken a fall and broken her leg. It was up to Jackie Bessey, Elizabeth Smith and Cecil Roberts to use what ever they could find around them to help the distressed walker.

Using a torn t-shirt, pieces of lumber cut from a nearby tree and leaves for padding, the crew managed to make a splint and get the patient comfortable.

After 20 minutes a voice hollered from the distance.

“Right, now swap,” Army veteran Michael Pretty said, and all the aforementioned participants did just that.

If it sounds like the thicket of bushland behind St Anthony’s College of the North Atlantic (CAN) was a disaster zone last week, you are right.

The five people undertaking this year’s hunter/fisher guide training program and several others seeking first aid credentials took part in three dramatic days of Wilderness and Remote First Aid training that would equip them for major incidents they could face in the bush on a hunting or fishing trip.

The mock accidents were all based on case studies of actual events and designed to test the reactions of the students based on their theoretical classroom work.

The teacher, Mr. Rowbottom, was also being trained during the process. He had completed the same course, an advanced course, and the instructor course last year in June and instructor Michael Pretty was there supervising as a last step in the process.

Mr. Rowbottom is now a qualified WRFA instructor for the Canadian Red Cross.

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