March 16, 2015 – 12:48Pm , written by Natalie Reilly and sourced from SMH.com.au

Imagine waking up from a blackout. You don’t know how long you’ve been out. It could be two days or it could be 15 years.

You don’t know where you are. You only know something horrible has occurred because everybody is hovering over you, speaking in slow, deliberate, loud tones, as if you’re a three-year-old without her hearing aid.

Waves of nausea crash through your body. You’d love to get up but you can’t. You feel as if you’ve just completed a marathon on a 35 degree day, complete with migraine. A paramedic snakes through and asks you your name. You tell him while he checks your blood pressure.

“What year is it?”

“Don’t patronise me!” you think, before replying “It’s … It’s …”

This is what it’s like to have a seizure.

Like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, a person is more likely to experience their firstseizure in late adolescence. Nobody knows why, exactly. It has something to do with brain growth and stress. And lack of sleep, which is the epileptic’s worst nightmare.

I was 18 when I had my first “tonic-clonic” seizure. It came with no warning. I had been trying to complete a university assignment at home in my room after 1am. I remember staring at the question. The next thing I knew my parents were standing over me, telling me I was “OK”, looking like they’d just seen my ghost. I was taken to hospital for observation. This is where the loud, patronising talk reaches its peak. Every ten minutes a medical professional swipes back the curtain and says:

“Now NATALIE I’M JUST GOING TO GET YOU TO SIT UP FOR ME AND TELL ME THE NAME OF THE PRIME MINISTER, YOUR AGE AND YOUR BIRTH DATE, OK?”

I was referred to a neurologist who diagnosed me with “mild epilepsy”. He put me on a bucket-load of medication that saw me gain over 25 kilograms and filled me with a fatigue so crushing I could barely walk. Yeah, I went off the medication. Surprise! I had another one. And then another, this time on a plane on my way to Italy. I remember the Italian airline steward reassuring himself by reassuring me I was “OK, Bella?” The English woman sitting next to me, who turned out to be – GET THIS – a neurologist specialising in epilepsy, waved him off.

I changed medication and stuck to it but I remained in denial (who wants to think aboutdeath in their 20s?) and still partied as heavily as my peers. I was on the phone to my best friend Jess in 2005 after one such party when I started repeating sentences. This is not unusual; I often do this for dramatic emphasis. So it wasn’t until Jess heard a big ‘Thwump’ and gargling noises that she hung up and called an ambulance.

The most dramatic was the one I had at work. It’s not as embarrassing as it sounds, especially because – bonus! – I didn’t wet myself. I was in the middle of telling my boss (and dear friend) a story when I moved my neck like something out of The Exorcist and dropped to the floor. “Well, this is new” she said, anticipating further theatrics. Again, this is what happens when you’re already the type of person who frequently performs contemporary dance moves at work. But her amusement soon turned to terror when she saw me, you know, ahmm… jerking and foaming at the mouth.

Imagine all the people who are normally filled with lukewarm contempt for your writing standing over you, pretending they’re now concerned for your welfare. Oh, not all of them. Some were straight-up scared shitless. As if watching someone literally ‘throw a fit’ isn’t enough, after an episode my pupils dilate to the size of a vampire’s.

I barely noticed because I’d entered the ‘postictal state‘. It lasts for roughly half an hour and is marked by aggression, confusion and an overall Memento feeling, that is to say you forget everything anyone says to you the second after they say it. This means the sentence “You’re OK, Nat, you just had a fit” is said approximately 100 times. It’s at this point an epileptic will act like a loose cannon, insulting everyone. So, um, yeah, I said a few things. Fortunately for me, I’m often saying things I shouldn’t, so staff members took it in their stride. That is, until I returned to work a week later.

“Are you Okaaaay?” people who could make eye-contact asked me, sotto voce.

See, this is why everyone hates pity. Because pity is just social discomfort in Spanx. Many staff members tried their best but most could not even say “seizure”, preferring instead to mime what looked like a knitting motion with their hands. One very senior female member of staff patted my arm with all the ease and warmth of a robot.

These days I’m fully medicated, although I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it. Like, right now in this cafe. I was seated underneath a ceiling fan but had to move because it was spinning below a light. Yah, the ‘strobe effect’.

So, overall I’m fine. Except for the synesthesia and the night terrors. But hey, one article at a time, right? A girl’s gotta make a living.

Make sure you book into a Canberra Childcare First Aid Course (HLTAID004) if you plan on running your own childcare facility at home or working in a care setting. We will provide information on how to treat seizures and all other first aid situations.

The humble apology from NSW Ambulance and the Health Minister, following the death of an 18-month boy from Tregear who slipped into cardiac arrest while waiting for an ambulance on September 9, was welcome. And although an overloaded system may not have contributed to this particular tragedy, demand remains the greatest problem affecting ambulance response times.

While people are quick to blame ambulance services when things go wrong, one of the biggest factors slowing down the system is the enormous number of inappropriate emergency calls placed by the public. And it is doubtful one will ever hear an apology from a patient who has phoned 000 for a mild case of food poisoning, man-flu or a broken fingernail.

During the recent bushfires in NSW, emergency calls for ambulances were the lowest they had been for a long time. Response times improved because more ambulances were available for critical emergencies. It is a phenomenon seen during previous major incidents, as people assume that ambulances must be too busy to attend less serious health complaints. As a result, people make their own way to hospital. Or they see their local doctor or wait at home and discover their symptoms miraculously resolve. This proves, to some extent, a difference between ”needing” an ambulance because there’s no other way, and ”wanting” one because the service is there.

Most people are unaware that even without natural disasters or major incidents ambulance services are under enormous pressure daily. And the majority of emergency calls are not for emergencies at all. If only callers had the same attitude to calling ambulances during normal weekdays as they do when they know there’s a disaster happening, demand would go down, response times improve and more lives would be saved.

Interestingly, ambulance services face less system abuse in rural areas. Why? Because, beyond the bush culture of stoicism, comes an awareness of the valuable resource that is the only ambulance in town. The community values and respects this and reserves using ambulances for only the most serious of illnesses and injuries.

In metropolitan environments people assume unlimited resources. But there is no such thing. Over the past 30 years there has not been a substantial increase in emergency ambulances in proportion to the population. Of course, there have been changes in service delivery, such as the establishment of a separate patient transport wing that frees up paramedic ambulances. But these measures are often only as effective as the public allows them to be.

There are many contributors to the problem of inappropriate emergency calls. General practitioners are not doing as many house visits as they once did, and many are unwilling to respond after hours. The public also know that ambulances are packed with high-tech diagnostic tools and medication that GPs don’t have. One assumption many people make is that they will be seen to quicker if they arrive at hospital by ambulance. This is not the way it works. All patients are coded by the same triage system. If your condition is considered low acuity, you are likely to end up in the waiting room where time to see a doctor may well exceed that of suburban medical centres.

NSW Ambulance does a remarkable job considering the demands placed on its limited resources. Occasionally a tragedy occurs which hopefully leads to an improvement in the system. In these moments it is easy to lay all responsibility on the ambulance service. But we, the public, are also responsible. Perhaps we should take another look at what we would call an ambulance for. We all have a role to play in improving the function of our emergency services and saving lives.

Benjamin Gilmour is author of the book Paramedico – Around the World by Ambulance(HarperCollins). www.paramedico.com.au

Make sure you know the right times to call 000. Get the right first aid training at a canberra first aid course today. Call Ryan on 0449746357.

http://www.acecqa.gov.au/first-aid-qualifications-and-training

Under the Education and Care Services National Law ACECQA must publish a list of approved first aid qualifications, anaphylaxis management training and emergency asthma management training.

For the purposes of the Law, the ‘qualifications’ on the list are either national or state accredited units of competency.

The list of approved first aid qualifications, anaphylaxis management training and emergency asthma management training replaces the state and territory government first aid requirements for educators from 1 January 2012.

If you have completed training and want to know if it is on ACECQA’s approved list, you will need to know the name of the training course and its code or other unique identifier. This information will appear on the certificate or transcript you received when you successfully completed the training.

The National Regulations include some transitional provisions to give services time to meet the requirements.

The National Regulations also outline the mandatory requirements for services in relation to these qualifications. Further information relating to First Aid Qualifications, Anaphylaxis Management Training and Asthma Management Training can be found in regulation 136 Part 4.4 – Staffing arrangements, Division 6 – First aid qualifications.

Below is a summary of the different requirements for centre-based, school-based and family day care services.

Centre-based services – regulation 136(1)

The approved provider of a centre-based service must ensure that the following persons are in attendance at any place where children are being educated and cared for by the service, and immediately available in an emergency, at all times that children are being educated and cared for by the service:

(a) at least one educator who holds a current approved first aid qualification

(b) at least one educator who has undertaken current approved anaphylaxis management training

(c) at least one educator who has undertaken current approved emergency asthma management training.

Services must have staff with current approved qualifications on duty at all times and immediately available in an emergency. One staff member may hold one or more of the qualifications.

Premises on school site – regulation 136(2)

If children are being educated and cared for at service premises on the site of a school, suitably qualified staff must be in attendance at the school site and immediately available in an emergency.

Services must have staff with current approved qualifications on duty at all times and immediately available in an emergency. One staff member may hold one or more of the qualifications.

Family day care – regulation 136(3)

The approved provider of a family day care service must ensure that each family day care educator and family day care educator assistant engaged by or registered with the service:

(a) holds a current approved first aid qualification; and

(b) has undertaken current approved anaphylaxis management training; and

(c) has undertaken current approved emergency asthma management training.

Each family day care educator and educator assistant, must hold all three qualifications.

Notes for registered training organisations

For the purposes of the National Law, the ‘qualifications’ on this list are either national or state accredited units of competency.

Registered training organisations do not need to apply for additional ‘approved provider’ status with ACECQA, nor do they require separate approval for specific courses.

– See more at: http://www.acecqa.gov.au/first-aid-qualifications-and-training#sthash.05SbrDr9.dpuf

Taken From SMH on February 12, 2015, Hannah Paine

It was a damp day last April, and Steve O’Neill described himself as “on a mission” to clean the gutters around his Balgowlah home.

“I had my hand reached up high, cleaning the leaves and I didn’t have gloves on. I felt something bite one of fingers on my right hand,” he said.

Immediately, Mr O’Neill pulled his hand from the gutter, and saw what looked like a spider fall to the ground. Alarmed and in immense pain, he ran inside and called his wife Natasha, who phoned triple-0.

Steve O’Neill was bitten by a spider reaching into his guttering.

“I was panicking, my heart rate was up and I was thinking ‘God what is going to happen next if this is a nasty bite what is going to happen to me,'” said Mr O’Neill.

With  a suspected funnel-web spider bite, he was taken to Manly hospital by ambulance and was placed under observation and blood tests were taken.

According to NSW Ambulance, 2015 has already seen a spike in spider bites.

A female funnel-web spider, one of the world’s most venomous, creeps out of its hole at night. Photo: Nick Moir

In January, 98 cases were attended by paramedics in NSW, with four so far this February. For 2014, paramedics were called out to 319 incidents in Sydney with the majority in Sydney’s west, followed by the north and south-west regions.

Forty-three of those incidents were involved Australia’s deadliest spider, the funnel web.

Fortunately for Mr O’Neill, no  venom was found in his system, and he counts himself lucky that whatever spider it was did not bite deep enough.

“I was worried because I didn’t know what it was, and you think of spiders [bites] how it runs through the blood stream and is it going to affect my heart or anything like that,” he said.

“It was very painful in the finger, it started to swell up [but] it didn’t move beyond my finger or hand it was just a throbbing pain similar to being stung by a wasp or bee, but worse.”

For Mr O’Neill, it’s not an event he will soon forget, and he has a scar to show for it.

“Ironically it didn’t draw any blood, but I can still see on my finger two marks where fangs or whatever it was scraped the skin,” he said.

Mr O’Neill also said that next time he does clean his house gutters, he will take better precautions.

“I do need to get up there pretty soon, but when I do I will be wearing gloves.”

Come and learn about the first aid treatment of funnel web spiders at a Canberra first aid course run at Ainslie Football Club. Our first aid trainers will teach you the correct techniques in case someone has been bitten by a spider.