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First aid is the most important class you could ever take.

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The summer after my senior year of high school, I took an EMT class. I thought I might become a doctor, and training to be an emergency medical technician seemed like the best way to ease into a life of saving lives. It turns out I was not cut out to be a doctor—something I discovered in an ER when I was assisting a man who had sliced his hand open on an aluminum foil container. As I watched the blood pool under his hand while the doctor stitched up his gash, I decided pre-med wasn’t for me.

Still, that summer I learned how to help someone who was bleeding profusely, administer CPR on a baby, and do a fireman carry. You don’t have to be a doctor to do any of these things—they’re all things to help people until they can get to a doctor—and they are also things everyone should be comfortable doing.

The course I took was five weeks long, all day long, which is unrealistic for most people. I’d never suggest that everyone train to be an EMT—my certification lapsed years ago—but basic first aid is different. There’s no reason you have to be panic-stricken during a life-threatening emergency. All the skills I mentioned above—plus other simple things like how to stabilize the neck of someone who has fallen or clear an airway—are easy to learn and can help save lives.

To be clear, as all health professionals will tell you repeatedly: The best thing to do in case of an emergency is immediately call 911. I can’t emphasize that enough. You shouldn’t, and can’t, replace a doctor. But the biggest lesson I learned from EMT training was that maintaining care until the health professional arrives can be just as important.

CPR is the most famous technique in first aid class—and a melodramatic movie trope—but some will argue that it does more harm than good. That’s really only the case if you don’t know what you’re doing, which is all the more reason that people should learn how to do it right! According to the American Heart Association, which clearly has an agenda here—a lifesaving agenda—effective CPR provided immediately after sudden cardiac arrest can double or triple the chance of survival, but only 32 percent of victims receive such treatment. While the AHA offers a 90-second instructional video for hands-only CPR on its website, this is not sufficient. Everyone should learn CPR in person to prevent the possibility of incorrectly administering it. When I spoke with emergency room physician Leana Wen, she emphasized this point. “Many people think they know how to do CPR, but don’t—if you only learn how to do it once, you’re not going to know how to do it again.” The only thing standing between you and potentially saving some of the other 68 percent of victims who don’t receive CPR is a 30-minute class. It’s so simple to learn, yet currently, less than half of U.S. states require high school students to be trained in CPR in order to graduate.

But there’s no reason to stop at CPR. Recognizing what drowning looks like—which is not how it’s depicted in movies—can help you save a life. Similarly, recognizing a life-threatening problem lets you know to act. If you see someone lying on the ground and know how to stabilize him, or see someone choking and know how to help her with the Heimlich maneuver, you’re contributing to saving a life.

There are no prerequisites for learning how to deal with things like minor burns orseizures. The Red Cross offers a two-hour course—that’s less time than three episodes of House of Cards—that can teach you many of these basics. Combine that class with the Red Cross’s CPR training, and that’s less than three episodes of Game of Thrones. Instead of watching someone get punched in the face on TV, you could learn what to do to help people in real life.

Compared with the rest of the world, the United States falls behind on basic safety training. In Germany, in order to get a driver’s license, you need to betrained in first aid—eight hours of it. That makes so much sense. A terrifying2.35 million people are injured or disabled due to road crashes in the U.S. each year. That’s not including the 37,000 who die. It only makes sense that you know what to do when disaster strikes during the most dangerous activity most of us ever engage in.

In my EMT class, I learned how to assess a situation—which includes figuring out if it’s too dangerous for me to even attempt to help out—and how to apply a tourniquet. There’s a range of what everyone should know—but even a little goes a long way. Yes, I recoiled at the puddle of blood, but I wasn’t scared. I didn’t want to spend my day surrounded by it, but I learned how to help.

First aid isn’t something you learn once and are set for life. You’ll need to take maintenance classes to make sure your skills are up to date, and that’s fine. It’s worth it. Think of the possibility of saving lives, and you’ll realize this is the most important course you could ever take.

“In Germany you need to be trained in first aid to get your drivers licence” genius we say. A first aid course is a vital set of skills that everyone should learn. Come and complete a first aid course with us in the near future at the best price of only $115. You cant beat that for a cheap first aid course. Contact Ryan and he willk sort your needs so that you are getting the best first aid course at the best price to suit your needs.

 

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Busy bushfire season predicted for Australia’s most populous regions

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ENVIRONMENT EDITOR, THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

The most populous regions of Australia can expect another year of above-average fire risk as the long-term decline in cool season rainfall combines with the strengthening El Nino in the Pacific.
A swath of land stretching from south-eastern South Australia to the north of Rockhampton in Queensland, and the south-western corner of Western Australia, are among the regions likely to have a busier than usual fire season, according to the Southern Australia seasonal bushfire outlook for 2015-16 report released on Tuesday.
We’ve basically got this very long, slow drying of the landscape in the background

David Jones, head of climate prediction services, BoM

Thor unleashes at Richmond.
Thor unleashes at Richmond. Photo: Peter Rae
While late winter rains have reduced the risk of an early fire season in much of NSW and eastern Victoria, a series of dry years have left soil moisture levels relatively low over large parts of the country, said Richard Thornton, chief executive of the Bushfire and Natural Hazard Co-operative Research Centre, which helped to compile the report.
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“Forested areas are still suffering a long-term deficit in rainfall,” Mr Thornton said.
These areas include the Otway ranges to the south-west of Melbourne and much of coastal NSW.
NSW Rural Fire Service crews prepare in the Blue Mountains in August.
NSW Rural Fire Service crews prepare in the Blue Mountains in August. Photo: Wolter Peeters
David Jones, head of climate prediction services at the weather bureau, said most parts of southern Australia have had consistently below-average rainfall during the cooler half of the year, from April to October, since the last big El Nino event in 1997. This year is shaping up to extend the pattern.(See chart below showing many areas have had a relatively dry decade.)
“We’ve basically got this very long, slow drying of the landscape in the background,” Dr Jones said. “Whenever warm conditions hit, things dry out very quickly.”

Late winter rains in NSW have lifted moisture levels but will also mean vegetation growth, especially for grass, will accelerate, Rob Rogers, deputy commissioner for the NSW Rural Fire Service, said.
The rain has also hindered hazard-reduction efforts by reducing controlled burning. “It’s fair to say we didn’t get the targets we’d like to have got because of the rain,” he said.
Competing weather patterns, though, are complicating predictions.
On the one hand, the strengthening El Nino in the Pacific is already among the five strongest over the past century, leading to a drier influence for eastern Australia, Dr Jones said.
However, record warmth in the Indian Ocean off Australia’s west coast has also meant more clouds and rainfall streaming over the continent, benefiting NSW in particular.
“Thus far Australia has been quite insulated from the El Nino by the Indian Ocean,” Dr Jones said.
Still, warmer-than-average temperatures are also expected in the spring, particularly at night, the bureau said.
Dr Thornton said the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires showed that “really, really bad fire weather days can happen in any year whether there’s an El Nino or not”.
Victoria, NSW
In Victoria, the major concern extends across the west of the state after another dry season, said Craig Lapsley, the state’s first Emergency Management Commissioner.
Mr Lapsley said residents should prepare for a long fire season, noting that many Victorians typically put off fire preparations from about a week before Christmas through January as holidays take priority. “We traditionally lose most in February and January” from fires, he said.
In NSW, the large bushfire near Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains in August showed how dry conditions were.
“If replicated in summer with low humidity, high temperatures and strong winds … it would have posed a lot more problems for us,” Mr Rogers said.
RFS volunteer numbers are holding up after a surge of several thousand following widespread fires in the spring of 2013, which destroyed more than 200 homes, and now stand at about 74,000, he said.
Both states will have additional aircraft available this fire season, including a Hercules C130 aircraft unveiled in Sydney on Tuesday.
Dubbed Thor, the plane can dump as much as 15,000 litres of water or fire retardant at a time, and will be one of about 100 aircraft available for use across the state to aid firefighters.
“With warm and dry conditions predicted throughout the season, these aircraft are an important asset in our firefighting weaponry,” Shane Fitzsimmons, RFS Commissioner, said.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/busy-bushfire-season-predicted-for-australias-most-populous-regions-20150831-gjbntt.html#ixzz3kT5ytbqT
Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook

Some worrying signs ahead this summer. Book in to a cheap first aid course in Canberra before the summer arrives. Not only will you learn first aid but some important emergency services info including apps and phone numbers. So don’t wait book in to a cheap first aid course today so you are prepared.

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Botswana: Ore Mining Team Win First Aid Competitions

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By Segomotso Lemme

Jwaneng — Jwaneng Mine ore processing and mining teams won the annual inter-departmental First AID competitions recently.

The two teams scored 196.5 and 191.5 points respectively, and would represent Jwaneng Mine in the First AID inter-mine competitions billed for October in Karowe in the Boteti District.

Speaking at the event, Jwaneng Mine general manager, Mr Albert Milton said the mine had made strides towards reaching its promise of safety due to concerted efforts and team work by the workers.

Mr Milton said they were hopeful that the safety promise would leave inscriptions, not only on the mine workers, but also in the community that the mine operates in.

He noted that the competition allows employees to transfer First AID skills and to learn from their colleagues how they could save lives.

He also said the competition gives them the opportunity to introspect on levels of First AID readiness and thereby helping them to raise the mine’s safety bar.

The completions were attended by 350 participants from different departments within the mine, and participants were tested on individual stages and group stages.

The ore processing team and mining team passed to the simulation stage after coming top of the 12 teams that took part in the first round.

Majwe Mining Joint Venture, who were first timers in the competition, came last with 373.5 points.

The captain of the winning team, Mr Willie Kesenkilwe attributed their victory to team work, patience, hard work and passion that his team had.

He said First AID was a continuous learning process, as there was no limit in learning how to save lives.

He noted that he shared his First AID knowledge with his family and the community with the hope that it would save lives that could be lost due to lack of First AID skills.

“The purpose of First AID is to prevent injuries, preserve life and promote recovery, it is only right for me to share the knowledge that I have,” he said.

Source: BOPA

What a great idea having competitions to see which team is the best first aid trained. Surely this would lead to more training for those lacking and students taking more interest in the process’s involved with first aid. Make sure you book in to a first aid courses in Canberra as soon as possible so you can help a co worker out who is in need.

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Why being a master cooper is no barrel of laughs

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Anita Singh

The last master cooper in England desperately needs an apprentice.
The last master cooper in England desperately needs an apprentice. Photo: iStock

The last master cooper in England is appealing for an apprentice, in an effort to stop the ancient trade dying out.

Alastair Simms, 52, has advertised for someone to join his business in Masham, North Yorkshire, but there has been a disappointing response.

The work, which involves making wooden casks and vats for beer and cider, is physically demanding and an apprenticeship takes four years.

The successful candidate must be able to lift heavy loads and demonstrate an affinity for using traditional tools.

Do as the Romans did

It is a fascinating job, according to Mr Simms. “Not a lot of people know what a cooper is, and that was probably true even in its heyday,” he said.

The younger generation don’t think they should be doing hard work, they think they should be sat behind a desk working on a computer.

Alastair Simms

“We pretty much do things the same way that the Romans did. The advent of machinery has made the process a bit easier, but we’re still classed as hand coopers. It’s physically a hard job. Sometimes you get to the end of the day and don’t look as though you’ve achieved anything, but your body says different.”

Mr Simms, who started in the industry as a 16-year-old apprentice and spent 15 years becoming a master cooper, said the paucity of applicants was a reflection of the times.

“I hate to say it but I think we’ve got Americanised,” he said. “The younger generation don’t think they should be doing hard work, they think they should be sat behind a desk working on a computer.”

Nevertheless, he is hopeful of finding someone to take on the apprenticeship and potentially take over the business when he retires. The successful candidate can look forward to a salary of £21,000 ($46,000) when he or she becomes a qualified cooper. The job is open to anyone, regardless of age or gender.

Precise skills

Mr Simms said: “People think it is a much easier skill to learn than it actually is. There is incredible precision involved. An apprentice would need to learn how to repair casts and make them, as well as work with different timbers and to measurements as specific as 2000th of an inch. The skill of making the barrel is something that has to be cultivated and refined.”

When he began his career at the Theakston Brewery in Masham, there were around 100 coopers in the UK. People with the surname Cooper have ancestors in the trade – as do those called Hooper, the job title given to people who made the hoops that encircle the barrels.

The introduction of metal casks in the 1960s has resulted in the trade almost being lost. “I want to keep the industry alive in England,” says Mr Simms, who set up his own business, White Rose Cooperage, in 2013. Wooden casks are now having a renaissance thanks to the rise of microbreweries.

The Telegraph, London

Looks like lots of hard work and manual labor. Canberra First Aid Courses will make sure they cover manual handling of patients so that you don’t end up injuring yourself when applying first aid. First aid courses in Canberra are run over a one day program and make sure to cover all of the most important aspects of first aid training. There are many providers offering great first aid courses in Canberra but we feel ours are the best and on top the cheapest. Book in now.

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Paramedics taken off emergencies to ‘babysit’ hospital patients

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The Ambulance Service will direct emergency staff to “babysit” patients in hospital waiting rooms under a new policy paramedics say could put lives at risk.

At the same time, Fairfax Media has obtained information that shows the extent of the burden waiting at emergency departments is placing on paramedics during the busy winter season, with ambulances waiting up to two-and-a-half  hours at hospitals on Thursday while emergency calls were waiting for ambulances.

The new directive appears to be in direct opposition to a commitment made by health authorities to phase out the use of so-called Ambulance Release Teams (ARTs) by December last year, after the Auditor-General found they were a waste of money that diverted resources from the emergencies where they were most needed.

Waiting: Ambulances at Gosford Hospital earlier this week. Photo: Supplied

Instead, an internal Ambulance Service “work instruction”, seen by Fairfax Media, shows that the service is now allowing operational managers to direct on-duty paramedics to ART duties, in place of a previous practice of bringing in off-duty teams that would not deplete existing resources if teams were already busy.

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However, NSW Ambulance said the work order did not prioritise the use of on-duty paramedics for ARTs, but instead outlined their appropriate use.

Health Services Union secretary Gerard Hayes said staff were being forced into implementing “another pointless cover for the government, one that puts patients at risk”.

“The minister needs to bite the bullet, admit she was wrong, hire more paramedics and put more ambulances on the road,” he said.

In just two examples of the backlog caused by the hospital delays, Fairfax Media understands that by late lunchtime on Thursday there were five ambulances at Blacktown Hospital, one of which had been there more than two-and-a-half hours, and no ambulances available to transport patients in the area around the hospital including Parramatta, Blacktown and Auburn.

By 1.15pm there were six outstanding triple-0 calls and six outstanding time-critical medical transports, sources said.

Earlier that morning at Nepean Hospital, sources said four ambulances had been stuck for half an hour or longer while five outstanding triple-0 calls had not been responded to.

Greg Bruce, an ambulance councillor with the HSU and a paramedic, said ambulance stations simply could not afford to lose cars to wait in hospital emergency departments.

“We don’t want ART shifts, we want hospitals to take responsibility and do what the Auditor-General told them to do,” he said. “If we just have to sit there constantly babysitting, they are going to be left without enough crews.”

“We really just want to go and do our job.”

A spokesman for Ambulance NSW said: “NSW Ambulance did issue a work instruction on July 3 to senior managers that outlines the appropriate use and procedures in utilising both ART and Duty ART. This work instruction does not at any point specify, order, direct or encourage prioritisation of on-duty paramedics to undertake ART.

“NSW Ambulance operational managers weigh up the competing needs at the Emergency Department to determine the most appropriate utilisation of resources. Duty ART is resourced from operational (on duty) crews when rostered ART is not available or is fully occupied elsewhere.”

He said the organisation was working with local health districts on a range of programs to stop the delays, including the Whole of Hospital Program and a project on Turnaround Time.

[email protected]

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/paramedics-taken-off-emergencies-to-babysit-hospital-patients-20150716-gided1.html#ixzz3g3dlt2Eb

Its scary to think that some of our most valuable citizen are finding it this difficult to do their job. Are you interested in becoming a paramedic? All paramedics need to complete a first aid training course before they start at university. Get in early and beat the pack so that you get choice of placement. Contact Canberra First Aid and book in now.

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Hero tradie Lincoln Sherlock speaks about ute driver Shayne Wood’s river rescue

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Date July 16, 2015 – 8:06PM

Jorge Branco

Lincoln Sherlock has spoken publicly for the first time since rescuing Shayne Wood. Photo: The Project

The man who almost died when he crashed his ute into the Brisbane River has finally caught up with the tradie who saved his life.
The driver, Shayne Wood, was reunited with Lincoln Sherlock on Thursday for the first time since the hero tradie dragged him out of his ute as it sunk into the river.

Emergency crews on Kingsford Smith Drive, where Shayne Wood’s ute crashed into the Brisbane River. Photo: Penny Dahl/Australian Traffic Ne
On Wednesday morning the 51-year-old told reporters he’d love to catch up with his saviour, saying the rescue would be “a good yarn to have over a beer”.
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He got his wish soon after when Channel Ten’s The Project brought the two men together to relive the shocking crash for an interview broadcast Thursday night.
Lincoln firmly rejected the hero tag, saying he hoped anyone would have done the same for him.

Shayne Wood has thanked the hero tradie who saved his life. Photo: Seven News
“To be honest I didn’t really think it was that much of a big deal,” he said.
“And it was all sort of done then, I thought he’s all right, they got hold of him, there’s no real need for me to be there anymore so I’ll just get going.”
But it was later when being interviewed by the panel that the 39-year-old from Springfield Lakes really stole the show.
The roofer didn’t think there was anything dangerous about the rescue but did stop long enough to remove a couple of layers of clothing to make the swim easier.
“I thought ‘I don’t want to be fully clothed and then he’s obviously going to be fully clothed unless something funny happened’,” he joked.
“I did think of that on the way in, that’s why I took the jumper and shirt off.
“I thought ‘I’ll leave one shirt on just to try and help keep me a bit warm’, that didn’t work very well either but anyway.”
The 39-year-old tradie was labelled a hero within hours of pulling a “crook”, “fairly incoherent” Shayne from the water off Kingsford Smith Drive in Hamilton on Tuesday morning.
As well as denying he was a hero, the man who swam into the Brisbane River when the air outside was less than 10 degrees claimed he wasn’t even a good swimmer.
His actions were only amplified by the fact he left the scene before even the police could talk to him and refused to speak to the media until Thursday night, when he told viewers he was just trying to make it to work on time.
“I got to the job and I was still in front of everyone. I was pretty impressed with that,” he said.
But The Project co-host and Fairfax Media columnist Waleed Aly was having none of it.
“You save a guy’s life and you’re impressed by the fact you turned up to work on time?”, he asked.
When asked about the weekend ahead and an inevitable bump in his attractiveness to the opposite sex Lincoln joked “I’ll fire up that tinder account” before saying his real plans were a little more low-key.
“(I’ll just have a) quiet one I think,” he said.
“I’ll go and catch up with me brothers and probably have a beer in the arm with them I s’pose, see what happens, just stay out of the spotlight for a while.”
– With Kim Stephens

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/hero-tradie-lincoln-sherlock-speaks-about-ute-driver-shayne-woods-river-rescue-20150716-gie58s.html#ixzz3g3dJu37Z

Canberra First Aid can come to you to complete a first aid course for your staff. We provide first aid for all situations and can make you feel more relaxed and comfortable in our training environment. See our website today and book now so you are prepared for an emergency.

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It’s a miracle, says Mick Fanning of his great white shark escape

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Three-time world surfing champion Mick Fanning says it is a miracle he escaped from his encounter with a huge shark without a scratch but showed signs of the psychological trauma he will have to deal with after his near-death experience.

The 34-year-old  arrived in Sydney and faced an enormous media scrum on Tuesday afternoon before heading home to, as he said, give his mum a big hug.

“To walk away from a shark attack with not a scratch on you, it’s a miracle really,” Fanning said.

“I’m doing OK, I haven’t got a scratch on me. It’s more of an emotional, mental trauma right now.
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“It’ll probably take a couple of weeks or months to get over. I don’t know.”
Fanning denied any suggestion he was a hero, saying he just did whatever he thought could get him away from the shark.
“I don’t know whether I punched it hard or just a couple of baby punches, but I just went into fight or flight really,” he said.
Fellow Australian surfer Julian Wilson, who was competing against Fanning and came to his idol’s aid, said: “At first I was frozen.
“Mick was looking at me, a big old fish popped up behind him. It was a lot bigger than him. I saw him start to get kind of manhandled by the shark and I was kind of freaking out.
“I wasn’t moving … trying to weigh up the situation. He was kind of getting wrestled off his board and then a wave came between us and I started paddling for him, just fearing for his life.”
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/its-a-miracle-says-mick-fanning-of-his-great-white-shark-escape-20150721-gihbtq.html#ixzz3gVhhdiWZ

 

WOW, Unbelievable. We are so happy to see that Mick is ok. Canberra First Aid can help you learn how to cope with bleeding emergencies. Get into one of our first aid courses in Canberra soon so that you are ready to handle many first aid situations. We provide a course that is easy to understand and follow but will give you all the basic skills.

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Swimming pool fencing rules face review after nearly all backyard pools fail test

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The father of Samuel Morris, a toddler who slipped through a hole in the fence around the family pool and subsequently died, fears a review of NSW’s controversial pool rules could result in them being weakened and delayed.

The Minister for Local Government, Paul Toole, has told industry groups that the state’s complicated and controversial backyard pool fencing rules – which more than 90 per cent of the state’s 380,000 pools fail to meet  – will be subject to an independent review by Michael Lambert, the former secretary of NSW Treasury.

“We need to do everything we can to prevent drownings in backyard pools, and we need to get the regulations right,” Mr Toole said this week.

But Michael Morris, who runs the Samuel Morris Foundation to eliminate toddler drownings, said the NSW government had twice delayed more stringent pool fencing rules, which would make it illegal to sell or lease a property unless it complied with fencing rules.

“I am not sure of the intent of undertaking a further review when they have yet to implement the raft of changes from the last review,” said Mr Morris. His son Samuel was two in 2006 when he slipped through a gap in the pool’s fence, caused by a construction problem, fell into the pool and nearly drowned.  Samuel suffered brain damage, and was severely disabled until he died last year.

The review, to be completed by December this year, will make recommendations on a new regulatory and enforcement framework that is simple and effective, facilitates a uniform standard and is proportionate to the risk being managed.

Pool deaths accounted for 39 out of a total of 266 drownings in the year ended June 30, 2014, according to the latest report by the Royal Lifesaving Society of Australia. Of those who drowned in pools, 14 were children up to four years of age, an 18 per cent reduction on the 10-year average.

Many children who have drowned in backyard pools did so because pool gates were left open or they were unsupervised by parents.

The review has been asked to recommend changes that encourage responsible owner behaviour.

Samuel MorrisSamuel Morris

Backlogs in inspections because of the high failure rate have twice prompted embarrassing last-minute decisions to postpone the introduction of a new rule that would require home owners to get a certificate of compliance before the property was sold or leased. These new rules have been postponed until April 26, 2016.

Many councils couldn’t keep up with the rush to get properties inspected, especially because most properties were failing the test. Sutherland Shire reported as many as 99 per cent of pools were failing initial inspections, with many pools failing to comply even after the same property had been inspected three or four times and made improvements.  And the Real Estate Institute of NSW warned that these delays could stop sales and rentals.

The independent review follows years of lobbying by the Swimming Pool and  Spa Association of NSW, which claims the current regulations are unclear, confusing and are being interpreted inconsistently throughout NSW.

The association’s chief executive, Spiros Dassakis, said NSW had the most complicated pool rules in Australia, which made it difficult for pool owners to understand and comply with the rules.

“There is too much interpretation. You can have 10 council inspectors inspecting the same pool, and half will interpret something one way and others interpreting it another way. You can’t allow people to misinterpret or disregard Australian standards.”

Many standards weren’t retrospective, which meant an inspector had to look at when the pool was constructed.

The association also wants the government to establish something like Queensland’s former Pool Safety Council, which would hear complaints from pool owners and make decisions. Currently, the only avenue for home owners is the Land Environment Court,

“There needs to be some avenue for consumers to address concerns they have, as opposed to being forced to spend thousands of dollars in the legal fees on interpretative matters.”

Pool and spa company owner Richard Dunn, who has had repeated fights with councils over fencing requirements, said many pool fencing rules didn’t make sense.

Mr Dunn, the owner of the Pool Clinic in Georges Hall, said the rules were inconsistent and illogical.   “And I want to know how a public servant can tell you what to have in your backyard: they are telling people no gazebos, no barbecues.”

Some council inspectors have refused to certify pools as safe where a home owner has backyard garden furniture, even heavy objects many metres away from a fence, that could be dragged to the side of the pool and used by a small child as a ladder to enter the pool.

Too much trust was being placed in fences, Mr Dunn said, and more should be done to teach children to swim and educate parents on the need to supervise children near the pool .

He recently saw a three-year-old shimmy up and over a regulation fence and into a pool’s enclosure in 22 seconds.

“What’s missing [in the debate] … is nothing is said about a parent’s responsibility to look after their children.”

Mr Morris said four-sided isolation pool fencing had been proven to be the most effective way to prevent drownings, but the number one tool in preventing drownings was adult supervision. Having barriers in place “buys you time, even with an adventurous three-year-old climbing … which means you would be 20 or 30 seconds quicker getting there”.

Mr Dassakis told industry publication Pool and Spa Review he was pleased Mr Toole had listened to the industry, “one that has provided voluminous submissions offering sensible and workable safety solutions”.

Mr Toole said it made sense for Mr Lambert to conduct the review because he was also reviewing a complementary piece of legislation, the Building Professionals Act, which covers the certification of pool inspectors and building regulations.

A discussion paper will be released in September.

Julie Power July 16, 2015 – 1:47PM

Read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/swimming-pool-fencing-rules-face-review-after-nearly-all-backyard-pools-fail-test-20150716-gid36w.html#ixzz3g3b0l1Rt

A pretty scary article leading in to summer in Canberra. Make sure if you have a pool not only do you do a first aid course but that you have all safety precautions covered. Canberra First Aid Courses give you the details of how to help in a drowning situation along with many other aspects that can cause emergencies in the summer periods.
Get yourself booked in soon so that you can lend a hand in a first aid situation.

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Sarina club will use $17,000 grant for first aid room

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Sarah Bishop | 8th Jul 2015 9:01 AM

SARINA Surf Lifesaving Club would have to host about 50 sausage sizzles to raise the amount needed to refurbish its first-aid room.

The mammoth task would have taken about one and a half years of major fundraising, beach markets and sausage sizzles.

However, the club was given a $17,000 boost from the Sarina Bendigo Bank with a grant for the project.

Surf Lifesaving Club president Kent Street said the funding would benefit members, as well as the Sarina community.

“Lifesaving is a part of (the) Disaster Management Program. The facilities can be used by SES, police and Queensland Fire and Emergency Services,” he said.

Jeanne Ronald, who has been a part of the club for 11 years, dedicated much of her time to secure the much-needed funding.

She said she had volunteered more than 100 hours to surf lifesaving simply because she liked to give back to the community.

Sarina Community Bendigo Bank branch manager Roanna Bella said the grant would allow the surf lifesavers club to be proud of its organisation and would keep the more than 8000 community members safe.

“Sarina Beach and the Sarina surf lifesaving group is huge tourist attraction that our local members are proud of, so we felt it was important to make this project come to life,” she said.

“We look around our town now and can see many benefits the Community Bank has achieved for our groups, but we also know this wouldn’t happen if it wasn’t for our volunteers and also our customers banking with us.

“We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone in Sarina for their support.”

Get involved

Contact the club on:

 Phone: 4956 6476

 Email: lifesaving@sarinasurf club.com.au

 Website: www.sarina surfclub.com.au

What a great way to spend the resources. A very important part of any Surf Life Saving Unit. Doing a first aid course with Canberra First aid course will make you feel happy and confident if an emergency situation arises. email us now at [email protected] and check the website to book in ASAP.

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‘He was breathing, so my wife had a wee chat with him’: heroic UK couple who gave first aid to Tunisia victims

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Brian Harrison, a former Red Cross volunteer, and his wife, a surgical nurse, moved through resort caring for tourists in wake of atrocity

Brian Harrison drew on decades of experience as Red Cross volunteer to treat the wounded during the Tunisian terror attack. Photograph: Twitter

In March, a few days after Brian Harrison and his wife booked their holiday to theTunisia resort of Sousse, Islamist gunmen killed 21 people, many of them tourists, at the Bardo museum in the capital Tunis.

“It hit the news and I thought: ‘What have we done?,’” recalled Harrison, 56, on Tuesday. But the Bardo killer was surely “just one of these maniacs with a gun” and there had been no repeat attacks so the former soldier and his wife from Aberdeen, who has asked not to be named, flew to Tunisia and checked into the beachfront Imperial Marhaba hotel.

Now, Harrison, and his wife, a surgical nurse, have emerged as among the heroes of last Friday’s atrocity that claimed the lives of 30 Britons and nine others when the 23-year-old student Seifeddine Rezgui went on the rampage with a Kalashnikov. Tunisian security officials now believe he trained in Libya at the same time as the Bardo attackers.

The married couple were in the hotel spa having massages when Rezgui struck and Harrison has told how he and his wife came across the carnage. They grabbed table cloths and napkins from the restaurant to bandage the wounds of the injured and dying, tended to those who had seen loved ones killed just minutes earlier and accompanied the seriously injured to hospital.

“Most other mornings we would have been on the beach but on Friday we decided we would go into the spa and then into town, shopping,” Harrison told The Guardian. “When I was having my massage there was a noise that to me, as a soldier, sounded like gunfire. I said to the massuese: ‘Is that gunfire?’ and she said: ‘No, no, it can’t be.’ It sounded like a machine gun. There was a wee pause and then there was a noise that sounded like firecracker and then the louder machine gun again.”

Those two different noises made him think later that there were at least two weapons used in the attack, which might indicate that more than one terrorist was involved.

Brian Harrison and his wife were in spa at the Imperial Marhaba hotel in Sousse when the gunman struck outside. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA

But at that point, lying on the massage table and with the noise stopped, he disregarded it.

“When we finished and came out of the spa, there were a lot of people running about, saying we had to go somewhere safe because there had been shooting,” he said. “It looked quite calm. So I went and got my clothes on.”

He met up with his wife, who had been having a massage in another area and was already dressed. They quickly grasped the extent of the tragedy. Her training as a nurse, and his as a British Red Cross volunteer, kicked in as they moved through the resort that had become a killing zone. In the hotel reception they came across an elderly man crouched in the corner.

“Whether he had been put there or tried to hide there, I don’t know, but he was obviously dead,” he said. “I gave him a shake to see if he would wake up and my wife said no.”

Across the lobby, they found a man lying on one of the couches with an abdominal wound.

“My wife said you could see a bit of his intestine, so she stayed with him,” he said

They searched for first aid equipment but their demands were “lost in translation” with the French- and Arabic-speaking hotel staff.

“I ran down to the dining room, because in a five-star hotel there would be some napkins and things, so I grabbed a handful and a few tablecloths,” he said. “We got a napkin on the guy’s wound. An ambulance came a few minutes later so we left him with the ambulance crew and went down to the pool area to see if there was anyone else we could help, past a few other people who had blankets over them and pillows over them.” They were all dead.

“On the steps going down we saw a guy who had been bleeding because there was quite a puddle beneath him, but he was breathing and other people weren’t, so my wife had a wee chat with him.”

Floral tributes have been placed where the attack started on the beach. Photograph: Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images

Harrison continued on to the beach looking for more people to help.

“There was a French girl sitting on a bed looking at her two friends covered over with towels who were both dead,” he said. “She was shaking. Sitting looking at her two dead friends wasn’t the best place to be, so I guided her to a member of staff who took her because he was able to communicate with her [in French].

“Beside the pool bar there was someone with what looked like shrapnel wounds which weren’t bleeding much but she had a badly broken arm so I chatted to her and tried to make her as comfortable as I could. One of the first things she said was: ‘My husband’s dead.’ The holiday was to celebrate their wedding anniversary which would have been on Monday, so I just stayed with her.”

She said she had witnessed her husband shot.

“When the ambulance turned up I stayed to be a bit of an advocate because there was a lot going on, as opposed to a lot of care happening.” He went with the woman to the hospital. Thankfully her wounds did not prove to be too serious.

“A lot of people in the hotel were stunned,” he said. “A lot of folk just wanted out, they wanted home. One young lad’s father was dead but he was having trouble grasping that. His mother pulled me aside and said: ‘I saw the side of his head getting shot off. I know he’s dead.’ She was trying to be strong because her son was so devastated. There was another young lad who’d lost his fiancée in his 20s. There are some heartbreaking stories.”

Harrison and his wife were due to remain on holiday until next week, but are now back in Scotland and say they are handling the experience.

“My wife and I are OK about it,” he said. “It is what we trained for and it is what we do. People keep saying ‘you are so brave’, but what else can you do? If you have skills that are useful, you use them.”

He had praise for the speed of the ambulance response and the arrival of the local Red Crescent, which deployed a psychological support team to be there if people wanted to speak about what they had seen. And despite the horror they witnessed, the couple think they may go back.

“Where we were was a beautiful area and we were starting to think we’d come back,” Harrison said. “The hotel was lovely and the staff were amazing. My wife was saying this morning we probably would go back. Just not this week.”

The Red Cross has set up a helpline for people affected by the attacks, open 8am to 8pm on 020 34170260

 

Some horrible incidents are happening like this all around the world at the moment. Its great to see people out there who are willing to volunteer. Make sure that you do some in your life its such a rewarding experience. Amazing that Brian used his first aid skills to effective use. Get your Canberra first aid course completed at Canberra First Aid and Training.

Contact us now to complete the Canberra first aid course on 0449746357 or email [email protected] .

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