Biker Down course

[MerlinPV12]

As promised, for those interested, a bit of a summary of the Biker Down course I did last Saturday. It was 4hrs of intense info, so this is most definitly a summary!

First up, as made clear by the guys delivering the course, there are NO right answers. If you are first on scene, its up to you to assess the situation and make the decisions untill professional help arrives.

The major take alway for me was that since my early days of biking, a lot has changed in terms of "immediate care"

Priorities: (not in order)
- Clear airway
- Chest compressions
- Body neutral position - on back (body naturally finds neutral position on back)

Here's a big change from previous advice/convention
- helmet off - casualty is on back to do this (they will show best way)
- check air way - if draining required roll over similar to "recovery position" but then return to back - repeat as required
- Chest compressions - big emphasis on doing this and doing it correctly - again they show you - 2mins is about as much as you can do in one hit (its knackering if your doing it properly!) If others are around, get them to take turns

Advice comes from Bike paramedic (20+yrs front line) Fire crew and Senior officer - all high mileage bikers.

There is a good deal of discussion about managing the scene, your adrenaline and managing others.

In their experince and that of the most senior trauma doctor in London, deaths occur because of blocked airways and resulting cardiac arrest, not from removing a helmet or moving a body - if you need to move/drag them out of further harms way...do it.

It was said politely, and with understanding, but they cited "dithering" by those first on scene was a significant cause of some casualties not surviving, when their injuries, if attended to quickly, were entirely survivable.

I think that not only bikers would benefit from this course, but the general public too, highly recommended.

Could you post a link to them, if they're offering it regularly. I may have missed it in another post but I'm interested in this when my schedule settles down a bit.

[Mr Gazza]

This sounds like a priceless, un-missable course. Thanks for the review Merlin.

Bury-St-Edmunds Fire Station does these courses but have none planned for the foreseeable future. I've heard that they will schedule one if there is a reasonably sized group interested.
I understand that this would be about a three hour course on a weekday evening and would be free.
Let me know if you are interested and I will see what can be done.

[MerlinPV12]

Originally Posted by Aviatore

Could you post a link to them, if they're offering it regularly. I may have missed it in another post but I'm interested in this when my schedule settles down a bit.

Here yer go Sir, in my previous post:

http://www.ukmonster.co.uk/monster/s...t=54908&page=2

[Jez900ie]

Looks very interesting and available here in Cheshire

http://www.cheshirefire.gov.uk/publi...ety/biker-down