NIKITA Stutchbury from Mulgoa put first aid skills she learned at school into practice and it kept her mum, Nadine, alive.

During the January school holidays, the nine-year-old Mulgoa Public School student had to think fast when her mother suddenly collapsed from a severe allergic reaction.

“When mum fainted my whole body was like, ‘what’s happening, what am I supposed to do?’ and then I went back to first aid at school and I remembered all of that,” Nikita said.

“(They taught me to) call 000, answer all the questions and keep calm … ‘I said: mum is on the floor, she can’t see and she is not breathing properly’.”

At the time, her mother and sister Willow, 5, were the only ones at home, as her father had gone out for a bike ride.

The way Nikita absorbed advice from the St Johns First Aid in Schools Program, and showed mature behaviour during the event, was recognised at the 2015 St John Ambulance Australia (NSW) annual awards this month, where she was given a Save a Life award.

Another great story and reason why we should be training our kids first aid. Although not being able to issue children under 14 with a certificate we at Canberra first aid do allow children from 12 years and over to attend our first aid course in Canberra.

Francesca Lowe has now organised basic paediatric first aid classes to help mums and dads prepare for an emergency.

A mum whose baby’s life was saved by heroic firefighters when he stopped breathing has set up a first aid course to help other parents cope in an emergency.

Francesca Lowe rushed into Leigh fire station when little Thomas, just weeks old, startedturning blue in the car on a Saturday afternoon in May .

The crew, who were training in the yard, gave him first aid and helped him start breathing again.

After giving Thomas, now almost six-months-old, oxygen therapy, they handed him over to paramedics. Thomas, who was born prematurely, has made a full recovery following the ordeal.

Sean Hansford

Francesca, 41, from Lowton , has now organised basic paediatric first aid classes to help mums and dads prepare for an emergency.

They will take place weekly at Lowton High School – Francesca’s former school – in conjunction with the local Sure Start Centre. She’s already signed up nine mums for the free classes.

Francesca said: “After it happened, I was left thinking I had to do something about it because so many parents wouldn’t know what to do in that situation.

“I knew I had a chance to make a difference and build some awareness of paediatric first aid. So many people shared the story online – I had to take advantage of that and take the opportunity to raise awareness.

“If this helps save just one child’s life, it will be worth it.”

The M.E.N. helped reunite Francesca and Thomas with Leigh station’s Green Watch crew days after the drama – and put her in touch with Dan and Joanne Thompson, who set up charity Millie’s Trust following the death of their baby daughter in 2012.

Sean Hansford

The Stockport charity aims to train parents and nursery staff following the tragic death of nine-month-old Millie in a choking incident at Ramillies Hall School and Nursery inCheadle Hulme .

Every member of nursery staff across the country could be trained within just three years, thanks to the inspirational couple’s campaign to change the law.

Francesca added: “After speaking to Joanne, and seeing what those two have done, I knew I had to do something too. In that situation, when it’s your child, you’re blinded by panic.

“Knowing what to do is so important – it really is a matter of life and death.”

Make sure you enrol to a first aid course when you find out your pregnant. We have been saying it for years. Hopefully we at Canberra First Aid Courses can help you learn the skills so you can save a childs life. Contact us today and get booked into a first aid course in Canberra.

Chloe Booker
Published: October 11, 2015 – 7:25PM

An eight-year-old Altona North boy is being praised after using first aid training learnt at school to save a four-year-old boy from drowning.

Judd Greenham was playing in a Port Douglas resort pool while on a family holiday when he saw Matthew Sagar slip on a step, hit his head and fall unconscious to the bottom of the pool.

Although there were five adults watching over the shallow pool about noon on September 30, it happened so quickly that Judd was the only person to see the incident.

“The little boy slipped over on a step and hit his head and then I scooped him up,” Judd said. “His eyes were rolling back.”

St John Ambulance had visited Judd’s grade 2 class at Sacred Heart Primary School in Newport as part of its first aid in schools program in May.

Judd said his pool safety training kicked in and he began to practice what he’d been taught.

“I pulled his head up from the water,” he said. “I [put] my hand under his nose to see if he was breathing and he wasn’t breathing.”

Judd then called his mother, Natasha, who phoned an ambulance as Matthew’s father jumped in the pool.

Paramedics arrived and Matthew slowly regained consciousness as Judd stood over him repeating questions he learnt at school, such as “how many fingers am I holding up”?

The first aid program’s manager, Martin Wells, said the training had given Judd the confidence to act quickly to save Matthew’s life.

“He was five seconds away from being dead,” he said.

“It’s another testament to the proof that first aid training saves lives and you’re never too young or too old to learn what to do when in an emergency.”

Mr Wells said once water entered a child’s lungs, there was a 90 per cent chance of death at the poolside.

If paramedics were able to revive the child, there was still only a 2 per cent survival rate in hospital.

“We’re talking about a couple of seconds between life and death,” he said.

Mr Wells said it showed how important it was for all members of the public to learn first aid.

Matthew’s father, Peter Sagar, said the Strathmore family was “very fortunate” no water had entered the boy’s lungs.

“Judd was great,” he said. “He was onto him so quickly it didn’t given him a chance for anything to happen.”

Ms Greenham said she was “completely overwhelmed” and planned to take her son to SeaWorld to swim with dolphins as a reward.

Judd remained humble about his actions but said he was “very proud” of his efforts and wanted to learn more first aid.

“I kept giving him cuddles [afterwards] because I was scared of anything happening to him, so I was happy.”

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/five-seconds-from-death-boy-8-saves-child-using-first-aid-learnt-at-school-20151011-gk6d2q.html

And this is why Canberra First Aid and many other national providers are wanting first aid to be compulsory in schools.

Canberra First Aid can provide you with a great introductory first aid course in Canberra at a cheap rate meaning you can get the skills and knowledge needed to save someones life.

A Delta first aid provider has been dealt a crippling blow after thieves stole $14,000 worth of gear from his ambulances.

Doug House says he was crushed  when he realized the equipment wasn’t covered under his insurance policy.

                “My initial reaction was ‘who would steal from an ambulance?’ The vehicle that exists to help people. We’re supposed to be the good guys, who would steal from an ambulance. And my second thought of course, we’re a small private business, how are we going to recover from this?”

He says the equipment , including stretchers, radios, and defibulators, took him years to build up and his company often works for little or no money covering community events.

“A lot of the work we do is volunteer or for honorarium, just to assist the community, so just a buck here and two bucks there. So it takes quite some time. This is quite debilitating.”

Friends have since set up a crowd funding campaign to help him recover his life saving equipment.

Horrible news for a first aid provider in Canada. As mentioned we also give back to the community by donating time and money. Canberra First Aid and Training is the cheapest course in Canberra and thus we would feel the effects from an incident like this also.

Get your first aid training updated today.

Lucy Cormack, Environment reporter
Published: October 9, 2015 – 5:34PM

Sarah Adam was just buckling her kids into the car when she felt it strike.

The juvenile red belly black snake had been quick to sink its fangs into the side of her foot and she felt an instant rush of pressure and pain.

“That’s the best way to describe it, like someone had thrown a rock.”

When she was bitten last weekend Ms Adam, 31, was leaving the home of her parents-in-law, who had never seen a snake at their south-western Sydney home in 37 years.

“The kids were quite frightened,” the primary school teacher said. “We were very glad it was me and not them. We called triple zero and they told my family how to apply the pressure bandage while we waited for the ambulance.”

The incident would lead to a four-day stay in the neuro ward of Campbelltown Hospital, where doctors were concerned about kidney and liver damage due to a pre-existing medical conditions combined with shock and dehydration.

While Ms Adam is now out of hospital, she is still recovering from the incident.

“I didn’t realise the lasting effects. I’ve been feeling very tired, it can be really hard to walk first thing in the morning.”

Ms Adam’s snake bite came right on cue with the end of the winter hibernation period, when warmer weather draws reptiles out of their winter sleep.

“They want to sit in the sun and warm up and they’re looking to catch up on a couple of meals,” said Geoff Ross, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service officer.

“They can be a little slow in the mornings. People often think they are sticks and tread on them.”

In the 12 months to August 31 this year, NSW Ambulance paramedics attended 813 incidents involving snakes and spiders, 248 of which were suspected snake bites.

Western Sydney attracted the most number of calls with 137, followed by 87 in the Hunter, 85 in the Northern Rivers and 82 in south-west Sydney.

Red belly black snakes, green tree snakes and diamond pythons are some of the most common species Sydneysiders can encounter in the warmer months, said Bill Collett, venom program supervisor at the Australian Reptile Park at Somersby on the Central Coast.

“The snakes are out moving … the boys especially, all they’ve got on their mind is mating, so they’re out looking for females.”

Mr Collett said Ms Adam’s situation was not surprising, as the most common place to be bitten is on the feet.

“The first thing you should do is put a pressure bandage around the bite site three times, straight up the limb, remove all your jewellery and don’t wash it, because the doctors like to take a swab of the area to pick up the venom to identify the species.”

By the time a bite victim is treated in hospital, a doctor will have administered an anti-venom to the bite wound. What many people do not know is the other animal involved in the healing process: the percheron horse.

Each week specialists at the Australian Reptile Park milk 250 Australian venomous snakes, before sending the milk to a lab to be freeze-dried and turned into anti-venom, which is injected into the same number of horses over nine months.

“In that period the horse builds up antibodies in the blood system,” Mr Collett said,

“They take a litre of blood out of the horse at a time, clean up the blood and extract the antibodies to be reduced to a usable form … they’ve been doing it that way since the 1950s.”

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/sydneys-warm-weather-has-woken-our-snakes-20151009-gk5caq.html

There back so look out. Make sure you know how to treat a snake it by completing a first aid course with Canberra First Aid.

Vince Shuley / Whistler Question September 21, 2015 07:12 PM

Learning to respond to medical emergencies in the backcountry is an important step in outdoor education. The term “first aid course” doesn’t exactly turn up the cool factor. Mountain dwellers would rather spend their well­earned money on an avalanche course, a ski mountaineering course or something even more specialized like crevasse rescue or ropes rescue. Any of those course enrollments are a conversation starter, but a first aid course sounds about as exciting as heading back to school with the kids this month. But while first aid courses might be more attractive to parents living in the suburbs (in case their kids get hurt around the house), in a place like Whistler it’s more important than anywhere else for members of the community to have the proper training if one of their friends get hurt. Ski patrol is only a call away when riding in the resort, true. But it’s not always as simple as a patroller and toboggan skiing straight up to you like they can in the terrain park or on the groomers. If the injury is in what the professional responders term “Category 3” (possible loss of life or limb) then every second counts. I’m not going to try to summarize the content of a first aid course in the space of this column, but I will say this: if you like to spend time on the mountain or in the backcountry doing rad things, then you should have a minimal level of training in how to keep someone alive. That means taking a first aid course and learning the latest techniques for administering CPR and using a defibrillator. There are quite a few levels of training in this field, so let’s take a look at what’s the most appropriate for you: Standard First Aid (16 hours, $155 ­ $175) This is the two­day course where people generally get their first level of training. CPR and AED training is included and participants learn how to treat airway, breathing and circulation emergencies (that ABC acronym will become very familiar) as well as head and spine injuries, bone muscle and joint injuries and wounds. This course is a prerequisite for many non­mechanized outdoor tour guide jobs. Some course providers will offer an 9/23/2015 The Outsider: Why it’s time you did a first aid course http://www.whistlerquestion.com/opinion/columnists/the­outsider­why­it­s­time­you­did­a­first­aid­course­1.2065072 2/2 introductory wilderness first aid course (20 hours, $180­$240) with a focus on improvising first aid supplies in the field. Advanced Wilderness First Aid (40 hours, $450 ­ $475) This four­day course designed by Sirius Wilderness Medicine is the minimum standard for outdoor professionals, guides and instructors who work in a wilderness setting. The above mentioned subjects are all covered in more detail under the pretence that hospital care is not immediately available. If you’re spending multiple days in the backcountry, someone in your group should have this level of training. Outdoor Emergency Care (OEC), Wilderness First Responder (WFR), Occupational First Aid (OFA) Level 3 (80 hours, $825 ­ $1050) If you’re looking to start a career in the guiding industry or ski patrol, these two­week intensive courses are where you begin your training. Traditionally the OEC (designed by National Ski Patrol in the U.S.) has been most suited to ski patrol jobs, WFR is best for outdoor guiding (with additions like evacuation procedures) and OFA is the standard for workplaces in urban environments. However, some employers prefer OFA because of WorkSafe BC regulations. These courses are a big investment in time and money, but are incredibly comprehensive in what they cover and the text books serve as an excellent reference source on the book shelf. OFA can also land you jobs on industrial sites if you’re looking for shoulder season work.

An interesting article to show the differences in a first aid course in Canberra and a first aid course in Canada. Obviously Whistler being an adventure capital of the world the first aid likeliness would be higher but also could be more serious. If you want to do a first aid course in Canberra make sure you book in with Canberra First Aid.

A teenage girl who helped save a boy with her first-aid skills has called on MPs to back compulsory lifesaving lessons in schools.

Alisha Poyser, 16, says her own training meant ‘the difference between life and death’ when an 11-year-old fellow pupil suffered a serious head injury at school.

Now the student has written a moving open letter to politicians urging them to help create a new generation of lifesavers by supporting the Emergency First Aid Bill.

Tabled by Labour MP Teresa Pearce, the Bill would make lessons mandatory in state secondary schools, including academies and free schools – but it needs widespread political support in order to become law.

The Mail on Sunday has campaigned to get the Bill a second reading on November 20 – the last chance to get it passed in this Parliament.

In her letter, Alisha tells MPs: ‘I’m so thankful that I was able to help that day because nothing is worse than feeling helpless, especially when someone you care about needs medical help.’

Senior doctors, including NHS England medical director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, have already pledged their support, along with St John Ambulance, the British Heart Foundation and the British Red Cross. These charities are also urging the public to lobby their MPs to support the Bill.

Support from at least 100 MPs is needed for it to stand a chance of being passed – and for lives to be saved. Last week, the three charities took their campaign to Westminster, marking another crucial step towards the Bill becoming law.

‘Lifesaving skills are so important and I feel proud to have been able to help,’ says Alisha, from Derby, who learned first aid in the Army cadets. ‘If I hadn’t been taught what to do then who knows what might have happened. That’s why everyone should have the training.’

Emergency first aid, which covers everything from asthma to cardiac arrests, doesn’t take long to teach but it can be the difference between life and death. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), for example, can be taught in just 30 minutes and dramatically improves survival rates for people suffering a cardiac arrest. However, only a quarter of secondary schools in the UK currently teach CPR.

Other simple techniques such as applying pressure to a wound can also mean the difference between life and death for anyone who is bleeding severely. This is exactly what Alisha did when she came across a pool of blood at the bottom of a flight of stairs and then spotted a boy bleeding heavily. It was later discovered he had fallen and hit his head on a metal railing.

When he lost consciousness in the incident last September, Alisha put him in the recovery position until help arrived. Although this was the first time Alisha had put her skills into practice, she remained calm throughout the accident at The Long Eaton School in Nottingham.

‘People were starting to crowd round but the teachers got everyone away,’ says Alisha, whose ambition is to be an Army combat medical technician. ‘I thought he’d hurt his eye at first but when I moved back his hair I saw the cut was above his eye on his forehead.

‘He’d hit his head on a railing and I’d never seen so much blood before – it was pouring out – and he was not saying anything because he was in shock. But the adrenaline and my training kicked in straight away. I wasn’t panicking. I felt very calm and didn’t hesitate.’

Alisha’s friends all started clapping when she walked back into class, and the school’s head teacher telephoned her mother Leanne to say how proud he was of her actions. The boy, who does not want to be named, is understood to have made a full recovery.

‘First aid is not like having to sit in a classroom – it’s fun to learn and all very practical,’ says Alisha.

Prof Keogh says that compulsory first-aid training in schools is ‘essential’, and that the earlier children are taught it, the better chance they have of retaining the knowledge. ‘It’s essential, especially given we are trying to stop people going into A&E with minor injuries such as cut fingers,’ he told The Mail on Sunday.

‘The earlier we teach children first aid, the more likely they are to retain this knowledge – and they can also teach the rest of the family. I and other senior colleagues want training to become mandatory in schools through this Bill and campaign.’

St John Ambulance chief executive Sue Killen says: ‘Nothing is more important to us than young people learning how to save a life. We urge everyone to go to the website everychildalifesaver.org so MPs see that this campaign has backing in every community.’

Mike Adamson, chief executive at the British Red Cross, said the Bill was ‘a one-off chance to equip a new generation of first-aiders with the skills they need to make a difference’.

Survival rates for cardiac arrests away from hospitals are very low in the UK compared with other countries where CPR is widely taught, according to British Heart Foundation chief executive Simon Gillespie. ‘MPs now have the opportunity to take responsibility for addressing this needless loss of life,’ he says.

To lobby your MP, go to everychildalifesaver.org.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3241129/Lifesaving-teenager-says-m-proof-pupils-learn-aid-Heroic-Alisha-backs-campaign-calls-MPs-make-law.html#ixzz3mGYi0Aia
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

A great article on first aid training for students. Come and complete a first aid course in Canberra today with Canberra First Aid and Training. We complete one of the best first aid courses in Canberra at a great price.

TOMORROW is World First Aid Day and The Reporter would like to challenge all our community groups, schools, organisations, businesses and individuals to become community heroes and get trained in First aid. Red Cross First aid trainer Anthony Cameron said First aid was an important skill for each of us to learn to ensure our families, friends and neighbours receive the right treatment and support in emergencies. “As our population ages, more Australians will be at risk of injury and illness. Anyone who has the knowledge, skills and confidence to respond quickly in an emergency can be a real hero, whatever their age,” Mr Cameron said. By 2050 the proportion of the world’s population over 60 years will have doubled from about 11% to 22% and the number of people aged 60 years and above is expected to increase from 605 million to two billion. Being First aid trained can improve the physical and mental health of older people. It can also help with cognitive abilities, depression and anxiety as well as aches, pains, mobility and balance. These days, many older people also care for grandchildren while parents work full-time. Having the skills and confidence to react in an emergency can minimise the impact of an injury, assist recovery and even save a life. For a donation, Logan Local Ambulance Committee offers basic First aid and CPR training for all ages, from preschool to seniors.

It doesnt matter who you get trained in first aid by just make sure you are trained. First aid can save lives and in Canberra our first aid courses are what we believe to be the best. Contact us now to book in to your first aid course.

Katie Burgess
Published: September 8, 2015 – 8:52PM

Australian National University scientists have discovered a possible new species of funnel-web spider dwelling near Jervis Bay.

Biologists uncovered the unusually large specimen of the spider’s tree-dwelling genus Hadronyche while canvassing Booderee National Park.

The 50-millimetre female was burrowed inside a rotting log in a silk-lined nest up to two metres long.

Scientists estimate she is between 25 and 30 years old.

Further genetic and morphological analysis will be needed to determine whether it is a new species, but ANU biologist Dr Thomas Wallenius​ was pleased with the surprise find.

“It was unexpected that we’d find such a beautiful specimen,” Dr Wallenius said.

“While a lot of the fauna is quite well documented, the surveys on invertebrates [in the national park] haven’t been done as intensively so we’re currently working to see if the funnel-webs fit into current classifications.”

While the tree-dwelling funnel-web differs morphologically to its ground-dwelling Sydney cousin, Dr Wallenius said “both are quite dangerous”.

It is hoped by learning more about the biodiversity of the funnel-web populations in Jervis Bay, researchers will be able to ensure accurate identification and administration of antivenom in case of a bite.

The first funnel-web antivenom was developed in 1981 after scientist Struan Sutherland heard of the death of a seven-year-old girl who was bitten by a funnel-web near Jervis Bay.

More than three decades on, scientists still have much to learn about Australia’s most notorious spider.

The discovery is part of a wider biodiversity study of the area.

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/scientists-discover-possible-new-funnelweb-spider-species-near-jervis-bay-20150908-gjhnle.html

arggghhh, not another Funnel Web, these spiders are one of the deadliest in Canberra. It is important that you know how to treat a funnel web spider bite with the correct first aid techniques.

Doing a first aid course in Canberra will make sure that you can complete the PIT for snake bites. We look forward to you joining one of our very popular first aid courses in Canberra soon.

Alexandra Back
Published: September 11, 2015 – 7:53PM

A survival expert believes Kathleen Bautista being found alive after six nights alone in the bush came down to her determination to live.

Last Saturday, 19-year-old Ms Bautista’s car tumbled down an embankment in the bush 30 kilometres west from Canberra, landing upside-down in a creek.

With injuries to her legs and abdomen that limited her ability to walk, Ms Bautista crawled several hundred metres from her car to the top of the other side of the embankment, where she was found on Friday morning, six days later.

She reportedly drank creek water, but hadn’t eaten in that time. Temperatures last week in Canberra dropped to below zero  degrees, to minus 2.7 early on Wednesday morning, while days were fortunately milder and it didn’t rain. While there were trees and rocks in the area, it’s not known, how, or if, she was able to find shelter.

There’s an old survival doctrine, the rule of three – a human can’t go without air for three minutes, shelter for three hours, water for three days and food for three weeks – which Ms Bautista at least came close to breaking.

But Rich Hungerford, an ex-SAS soldier who now runs Bush Lore Australia, a survival training company, said what was  more important than the rule of three was keeping “emotionally intact”.

“Emotional control and emotional intelligence is a massive, massive part of who survives and who doesn’t,” he said.

He said that people who went through extreme circumstances and came out alive tended to be those who could manage the troughs and peaks of emotion they experienced.

“When we think about survival we often think about shelter, food, fire. At the end of the day, it’s really about that internal grit, that’s the difference.

“[Ms Bautista] may have had some reason to anchor herself back to the world she’s living in. That to me, that’s what makes people stand out. She’s got that grit, that drive to keep going,” Mr Hungerford said.

He said that Ms Bautista’s experience was “an incredible thing, but it’s not as incredible as people often think”.

“Human beings are designed to survive, we’re an incredible species.

“There are thousands of stories of people who suffer tremendous injury or hardship and they come through and it’s not necessarily the people who have training, or equipment.”

This story was found at: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/kathleen-bautista-how-did-canberra-teenager-survive-in-the-bush-for-seven-days-20150911-gjkp0c.html

An amazing story about what must be a very strong young lady in Canberra. A huge thanks must go out to the search parties involved and the Canberra community for their diligent efforts.

Anyone interested in joining the emergency services will need to gain a first aid certificate by completing a first aid course in Canberra. Please see our website and check when the next available dates are to book in.