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Dr Rebel Skirving thinks human injuries are “gross” but when a newborn goat she had delivered wasn’t breathing, she dived into mouth-to-nose resuscitation without a second thought.

“It was in desperation,” she said, recounting the story to a full room at her first animal first aid course.

“I blew into its nostrils to inflate its lungs and massaged its chest to try and get the heart going. After a few minutes it did start to breathe on its own and had its own heartbeat.”

While responding to animal emergencies is the veterinarian’s job, it’s a skill regular pet owners in her regional town of Mount Gambier, in south-east South Australia, have been keen to learn.

Her course has attracted a mix of dog breeders, hobby farmers and young students curious about how to handle crises from snakebites to kangaroo fights.

“In a lot of emergency situations, the time taken to get that animal to a clinic can mean the difference between life and death,” Dr Skirving said.

“So if the owners are trained and confident in doing first aid procedures then they can make the difference.

“These preparations … don’t take the place of proper veterinary care but it’s information so that if an emergency does come up, there are things that you can do involving just common sense and using common items around the place.”

Household items ‘can be lifesavers’

Many of the first-response treatments recommended at the course involved household items likely to be in most bathroom or kitchen cabinets.

Your dog ate a fish hook or a shard of glass? Feeding it cotton wool — perhaps mixed with gravy to make a tastier meal — can “literally be a lifesaver”, according to Dr Skirving.

“It can do a really good job of wrapping up sharp things and protecting the gut,” she said.

“I had a call once from a client whose dog had eaten a knife blade … of course they were camping in the middle of nowhere.

“They still had it to take it to the vet but in the meantime the cotton wool had managed to actually encase it perfectly in the stomach and prevent anything like a puncture.”

Washing soda or sodium carbonate — not to be confused with washing powder — can be used to induce vomiting in dogs who have eaten poison, one of the most touch-and-go emergencies.

“You generally have about 10 minutes before it’s too late,” Dr Skirving said.

“Often if someone notices their dog has eaten bait, they’ll throw them in the car or on the ute and rush them in to the vet but … the drive is too long and they don’t make it.”

Courses build confidence

With human first aid courses commonplace, Dr Skirving said she wouldn’t be surprised to see the animal versions take off in popularity.

“There are not a lot of actual hands-on courses out there at the moment,” she said.

“Some vet clinics in the cities offer them but I’m not aware of many country practices that offer first aid courses.”

She said knowing the basics of procedures like animal CPR could dramatically boost people’s confidence when responding to emergencies.

“People surprise themselves with their own abilities,” she said.

“There are a lot of people out there who don’t like the gooey bits that come out of animals … they don’t like dog saliva but might just do mouth-to-nose resuscitation to save their best friend.”

Course participant Michelle Carey had previously found herself in that situation with a newborn Rottweiler puppy, that she managed to save.

“It’s very empowering,” she said.

“My animals are my passion, they’re my life, so to take one of them and help them breathe life was a natural response.”

She said she would feel more comfortable dealing with other emergencies after completing the course.

“I’d actually done a person’s first aid but this is the first animal first aid that I’ve been to,” she said.

“I got a lot of knowledge out of it.

“I’ve been around animals my whole life but … just having all the ideas I may have had confirmed, putting them into practice will be a lot easier.”

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Thunderstorm asthma alerts and all severe thunderstorm warnings for Victoria were cancelled on Saturday night but people can expect more “tropical Queensland” weather on the way.

Health authorities had earlier warned that storms, wind and high temperatures and pollen counts meant a “high” risk of a thunderstorm asthma event in central and north-east Victoria.

Asthma symptoms are especially likely during and after thunderstorms.

Authorities were warning people to act if they develop wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness or a persistent cough.

A thunderstorm asthma event in Melbourne on November 21, 2016, claimed the lives of 10 people and saw about 8500 treated in hospitals across Melbourne and Geelong.

At 5.30pm, severe thunderstorms hit Melbourne’s south-east, leaving a swathe of damage around Berwick and Cranbourne.

Senior forecaster Chris Godfred said two cells had developed in the eastern suburbs and tracked rapidly southward.

“One of those cells did go over Berwick, so one of our gauges there recorded 30 millimetres of rain in 25 minutes,” he said.

“We had another one near Frankston and we’ve seen a few reports of some damage around the Frankston area as well.”

The SES received 34 calls for assistance between 5pm and 6pm, 20 of those at Berwick.

Forecaster Michael Efron said the storm had weakened as it moved south east, with all warnings cleared after 8pm.

“I think we’ll see further showers overnight along with the risk of a thunderstorm,” he said.

“However, as we head into the late morning and into the afternoon we will see that thunderstorm becoming more extensive across the state and including Melbourne.

“There is the potential for some fairly large thunderstorms across the state during Sunday afternoon and so that could affect the Melbourne region as well.

Sunday will be another warm day across the state.

“For Melbourne, we are expecting a top of 29 degrees so once again temperatures above average for this time of year and also quite humid conditions more like you’d see up in Queensland.”

Cool southerly winds will move across Melbourne on Sunday, bringing relief on Monday forecast to reach a maximum of 22 degrees.

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Ellison Bloomfield knows that immersing herself in the stories of individuals who have benefited from mental health first aid training is a gratifying way to raise awareness.

Recently, the marketing manager with Mental Health First Aid Australia did this by promoting MHFAA’s online video campaign I Am One.

The campaign, which champions World Mental Health Day and celebrates the two million mental health first aid-trained individuals worldwide, features the stories of five first aiders who have put their training to good use.

“It’s something to be really proud of, hearing the stories from these people about when they’ve seen someone in a crisis situation and they’ve been able to have that conversation,” Bloomfield says.

“Potentially the conversations these people are having are saving lives.”

MHFAA is a national not-for-profit mental health first aid training provider that teaches trainers to skill the community to identify and respond effectively when others are experiencing both subtle and obvious mental health issues.

Bloomfield says her day’s to-do-list includes activities such as managing the MHFAA’s customer-facing website, promoting e-learning courses to universities, preparing to release the final instalment of the I Am One video campaign and assisting a colleague to review teaching notes for a course scheduled to launch in the next few months.

Through her work, she tries to influence perceptions, education and the discourse around mental health.

“There’s a lot of conversation about stigma and I don’t really like the word,” she says.

“I think it’s just more so that people don’t understand what someone who is unwell can look like and they don’t understand how to talk to someone about it.”

Bloomfield, an experienced marketer who started in the role in June, has previously worked in a range of related areas such as global social media marketing manager for skincare company Aesop, social media marketing manager for ad agency BWM Dentsu and digital content developer for Deloitte Digital.

Having reached a point in her career where she is enthusiastic to use her marketing chops for altruistic reasons, Bloomfield says MHFAA is a perfect fit.

But with a move to Victoria’s Surf Coast on the cards for early next year, she’s seeking to start a new role accordingly.

Given her passion for health advocacy, it feels like a safe bet to say that she won’t be working for a cigarette company.

“Having done this sort of work in a place that is so supportive and let’s me do work I’m really passionate about, I know I’m not going to take a role with a company that doesn’t align with those values,” she says.

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Thousands of deaths and disabilities caused by strokes in Australia could have been avoided with better care and facilities, according to a new audit by the Stroke Foundation.

The study surveyed more than 30,000 stroke admissions to more than 120 hospitals in 2016 and found many patients were “denied best practice.”

Only 36 percent of stroke victims are reaching hospital within the crucial 4.5-hour window in order to receive essential ‘clot-busting’ medication, and just 30 percent received the medication within an hour of arriving at hospital – compared with 59 percent in the US and 62 percent in the UK.

The medication, called thrombolysis, acts by dissolving clots of blood disrupting blood flow to the brain. The sooner it is administered after a stroke, the better the chances of recovery.

But the audit found the potentially life-saving medication is only being used in 13 percent of eligible cases Australia-wide – although this is up from seven percent in 2015.

This is despite it being available in more than 70 percent of hospitals in the country.

The report also found a “significant disparity” between regional and metro areas, with less than half of regional victims receiving care from a dedicated stroke unit, compared to more than 75 percent in metro areas.

Australians in regional areas were 19 percent more likely to suffer a stroke than city-dwellers, according to the audit.

Sharon McGowan, CEO of the Stroke Foundation, said there is a lot of work to be done to achieve best practice.

“Surviving and living well after stroke should not be determined by your post code,” she said.

“Australia has one of the most advanced trauma systems in the world, we need to apply the same thinking to emergency stroke treatment to ensure people living in regional and rural Australia have the best chance of making a meaningful recovery after a stroke.”

But there’s a silver lining: the report found the number of stroke units Australia-wide had increased from 87 in 2015 to 95 this year, and the use of thrombolysis increased from only 7 percent in 2015.

Ms McGowan says improvements to stroke care can be achieved.

“Stroke is a serious medical emergency which requires urgent attention, but with the right treatment at the right time many people are able to recover,” she said.

“We [must] ensure every patient with a stroke has a clear pathway to stroke treatment, whether that be at the regional hospital, utilising telehealth, or transported to the nearest comprehensive stroke service.

“This means clear processes between ambulances, emergency departments and stroke units enabling patients to be diagnosed and provided with appropriate treatment quickly,” she said.

Check out our upcoming first aid courses in which you will learn how to see a stroke and treat. www.canberrafirstaid.com

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500,000 students already trained

Children as young as 12 can – and should – learn CPR, according to a new study, which demonstrates the benefit of targeting first-aid training to younger participants.

The research, which was presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2017, assessed the ability of 160 children, aged, on average, 12 years old, to learn hands-only CPR on adults. The study grew out of a sixth-grade science project completed by lead author Mimi Biswa’s 12-year-old son, Eashan, whose name also appears on the final paper.

See Also

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• 10-year-old invents band-aid dispenser during cancer treatment, lands dream trip to NASA

Study participants were divided into three groups, to learn how to perform 100 -120 compressions per minute on adult mannequins. Those in the first group watched a video from the American Heart Association’s CPR in Schools Training Kit. The second group watched the video but also listened to music with a beat matching the goal compression rate, while the third group watched the video and played a video game, which also reinforced the goal compression rate. Eashan created the game himself, using a visual programming language called Scratch coding.

The children then tested out their newly-acquired skills on mannequins.

When they analysed the results, the researchers found that while most students remembered to call emergency services, performed CPR in the correct location and provided “high-quality compressions,” they did observe differences between the three groups. Goal compression rate was higher in the groups who heard music or played video games than those who only watched the official video.

As such, the team believe not only that kids should learn CPR earlier but that “tempo-reinforcing tools” like music and video games may help children attain goal compression rate to perform effective CPR.

“We were wondering why they need to wait until 12th grade when sixth graders have learned the circulation system and seem mature enough and are interested in learning Hands-Only CPR,” said Dr Biswas of th

The results were particularly exciting for Eashan, who hopes to be a doctor. “To go from making a video game to realising he can touch the lives of so many people and save a human life. How important is that?” Dr Biswas said. “It’s more important than any science project.”

Co-author Beth Zeleke added: “CPR is not a skill you acquire once. We have to learn it throughout our lives as clinicians. You need to practice. Teaching kids at a younger age and continuing that, could help create a lifelong skill.”

A 2009 study found that children as young as 9 were able to learn effective CPR skills – and remember them, too. “For at least the 120 days studied, the retention of these skills is good if not better that that of adult learners,” the authors wrote in the paper, published in the journal Critical Care. 

Read more: http://www.essentialkids.com.au/news/current-affairs/kids-as-young-as-12-should-learn-cpr-20171113-gzk2el#ixzz4zCGarSl4
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Updated Tue at 8:23am

When you see the pollen count on the weather report, do you know it relies on a person manually gathering the information using 1940s technology?

Unlike other environmental monitoring equipment, our pollen-counting method has hardly advanced in the last 70 years.

This is despite 18 per cent of us in Australia and New Zealand suffering allergic rhinitis — what we commonly call “hay fever”.

For most sufferers, hay fever is inconvenient. But for some, pollen can be catastrophic.

Lolium perenne, commonly known as ryegrass, is one of around 800 grass species in Australia.

It was implicated in the devastating thunderstorm asthma event in Melbourne on November 21 last year, which killed nine people and left thousands more seriously ill.

Allergy is a young field of study.

New technologies and availability of large digital data sets should change our understanding of the disease over the next few years.

This is especially true for our interaction with pollen.

Yesterday’s technology

Pollen counting now relies on 1940s clockwork technology: large drums often located on university rooftops with other weather monitoring equipment.

Airborne pollen attaches to a sticky surface as a drum rotates over time, giving a time series of pollen concentrations in the air.

A technician must manually collect the sticky tape from the drum and count the pollen spores.

Grass pollen is counted as one entity; it is difficult to distinguish genus and species as they look very similar under the microscope.

Lives could be saved first aid course

The Victorian Government has announced $15 million in funding to bring its pollen forecasting up to speed, hoping to better predict large-scale emergencies.

Thunderstorm asthma happens when high levels of grass pollens, which can travel hundreds of kilometres, combine with a certain kind of thunderstorm that shatters the pollen into tiny particles inhaled deep into the lungs.

In these situations, even people who don’t usually suffer from asthma can struggle to breathe and require emergency care.

This was the case last year, when the hospital system in Melbourne was overwhelmed by the unexpected event.

But a revolution in how we measure environmental DNA may help here.

New techniques

DNA can now be measured in environmental samples, including air, indicating which organisms are present.

This will allow researchers to quickly determine the species of grass and other proteins that may be driving allergies and asthma.

We are yet to realise the potential of digital mapping in pollen monitoring.

Cameras in fields can remotely observe the change in colour of grass, tracking its progress to when it releases pollen.

Satellites can also use infrared imagery to examine the colour of fields to assess grass location, density and pollen release.

Data offers hope

This DNA and satellite data could be fed with existing pollen counts into modelling programs to predict where pollen will end up, given the wind direction and speed.

This information would enable us to warn people with respiratory illnesses when to be prepared with medications and stay indoors.

My colleagues and I recently published a paper looking at the relationship between grass pollen in the atmosphere and hospital admissions in the UK.

Using data from seven years, we found a 4-5 day lag between exposure to pollen and arriving at the emergency department.

By bringing disparate data sets together, we are hoping we can help patients with allergic rhinitis and asthma to manage their diseases, and allow health systems to better plan and manage their resources.

To do this we need data on the genome of grasses, mapping of meteorological events, knowledge of peoples’ movements and behaviours, and health records.

All this is already possible, albeit often bound up in red tape.

Dr Nicholas Osborne is an epidemiologist and toxicologist at the UNSW School of Public Health and Community Medicine.

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Jack Lowis has been hailed a hero for saving his father’s life (Photo: Lisa Lowis)

Valerie Browne 4 hours Thursday November 16th 2017

Nine-year-old Jack Lowis saved his father’s life using first aid skills he’d learned at school, the day before the emergency. A young hero Keith Lowis was eating breakfast with his son last Saturday, when cereal got lodged in his windpipe, choking the father of two.

Jack stayed calm and started patting his dad forcibly on the back, a first aid technique he’d learned the previous day. The brave young boy was just about to call an ambulance when his efforts finally dislodged the food, enabling his father to breath again.

It could happen to anyone Luckily the Lowis family from County Durham could count on Jack – Jack’s mum, Lisa and older-sister, Holly, had left home early for a day trip to Newcastle on the day of the crisis. Mr Lowis was understandably shaken up by the ordeal, but that came secondary to the feeling of pride he felt for his son: “I was so frightened when I started choking, but Jack came in and took over, as calm as anything.” Full of surprises Jack didn’t tell his parents he’d had first aid training specifically in choking from his school, Prince Bishops Primary, in conjunction with St Johns ambulance.

The Tuesday after the incident, Jack nonchalantly stuck the crumpled First Aid certificate on the fridge. “When my wife and I read it, we were amazed.” Said Mr Lowis, “Jack had been taught first aid in assembly the day before I choked. An incredible coincidence.” Putting two and two together The Lowis family put Jack’s miraculous rescue down to his mother being a nurse who’d taught her children general first aid. “It’s been a long time since they’ve had a refresher, so we’re so thankful the school were able to deliver this training that helped save my life.” Said Mr Lowis.

In safe hands Mr Lowis said a few dads call his son “Safe Hands” on account of him being a quick-thinking goalkeeper who plays for Newton Aycliffe Junior Football Club. Following his heroic actions, the nickname has spread far beyond the football pitch. Mr Lowis said: “More and more people are calling him it and it’s certainly very apt.”

Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/essentials/lifestyle/people/nine-year-old-boy-saved-fathers-life-using-first-aid-skills-learned-24-hours-crisis/

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