First Aid Training Not Big In Thailand.

[BSJ]

Whilst riding along Pattaya Tai yesterday some hundred and fifty metres in front of me a Pajero and a moto collided. The man and the woman were thrown off with the woman laying on the ground unconsious. The guy got up and the first thing he did was pick her up and shake her....with associated screaming in Thai. I couldn't believe it! Any serious injury would only be exasperated with moving and shaking her. Now I know why the road toll is so high. Not because of the accidents, because of the unhelpful interference from family and friends!

[Fishenough]

That subject is coming up often this holiday season! Witnesses to bike accidents have seen no cervical spinal control and nothing along the lines of the ABC's which in North America have recently been changed to CAB (circulation, airway, breathing).

Had a good talk with a retired british paramedic just before the holidays about where to find proper first aid training (any level) in Thailand. Myself having being certified as a first responder for over a dozen years (=equals extra bucks on the paycheck), and not being valid (in the old country) for the last 4 years agreed that refresher training is important even for the experienced.

Maybe it's a good idea as a new start up business for a Thai/Farang partners? Provide everything to the one day basic course to teenagers in schools to the more in depth first responder courses: would large employers here being willing to pay for a few employees to do so?

[LivinLOS]

Guy gets beaten down on Bangla Rd.. There with blood streaming out of his head out cold.. The locals (in between taking camera phone pics) then shove a ya dong smelly menthol thing in his nose..

A1 first responder skills.

[phaethon]

Training is expensive, life is cheap: Do the maths...

[neverdie]

Yeah I shudder at the thought of being in an accident then lying in the wreckage with a neck injury.

[Fishenough]

Yeah I shudder at the thought of being in an accident then lying in the wreckage with a neck injury.

Ditto!!! I sport the latest in Titanium neck jewelry worn internally -

And crazy enough just watched a training demonstration in front of the shop on back board use, amongst 9 people, at one of the many road side safety stations. The Trainers were seriously lacking in there training; it wasn't taken seriously at all by the trainers when it should. Heck the lady playing injured didn't have a neck injury before she may have now!!

Training is expensive, life is cheap

Nooo, the other way around!!

May all riders never get 'the ride' on the floor, on the back of one of those pickup truck

[Zzinged]

[ScubaBuddha]

Had a good talk with a retired british paramedic just before the holidays about where to find proper first aid training (any level) in Thailand.

If you have one near by, any dive shop can give you CPR/First aid training. Some can also teach more advanced CPR/First aid, or BLS (Basic Life Support) if they have DAN (Divers Alert Network) instructors. The Padi and Dan websites can help you locate them.

Keep in mind though that the Thai governments official position is that lay responders, even dive instructors who are trained in BLS are discouraged from providing first aid due to a lack of "good samaritan" laws here. I was also told that AED's (Automated External Defibrillators) could only be used by trained doctors, which is a shame because they are designed for lay rescuers. I have heard this has changed though.

I am a BLS instructor and am EMT trained and my rule is I will help if it's a Thai I know or a farang. But if it's a Thai I don't know I follow the governments advice and not get involved, especially after an EMT friend spent some hours in jail for helping at an accident scene. If it's a child of any nationality I will help because to me that is worth spending a night in jail because of some backwards laws or whatever.

Good Samaritans Told To Walk On By

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Edited December 31, 2010 by ScubaBuddha

[katabeachbum]

Yeah I shudder at the thought of being in an accident then lying in the wreckage with a neck injury.

shouldnt worry, someone will pull you out :unsure:

[neverdie]

Yeah I shudder at the thought of being in an accident then lying in the wreckage with a neck injury.

shouldnt worry, someone will pull you out :unsure:

its the pulling that concerns me.

i think instant death would be better.

[katabeachbum]

Yeah I shudder at the thought of being in an accident then lying in the wreckage with a neck injury.

shouldnt worry, someone will pull you out :unsure:

its the pulling that concerns me.

i think instant death would be better.

and then throw you in the back of a pickup and take you to hospital at 200kmh

even the reputable private hospitals ambulance staff, most are short on basic first aid

one scene I arrived everyone, including the local traffic police, thought one person was dead. icecold, non moving eyes, drule, no pulse. two fists in the heart and it started ticking again, instructed husband to speak to here and she woke up.

I wouldnt have dared to interfere without my HighwayPolice ID card, but I simply couldnt watch her die without trying to help.

[Fishenough]

I am a BLS instructor and am EMT trained and my rule is I will help if it's a Thai I know or a farang. But if it's a Thai I don't know I follow the governments advice and not get involved, especially after an EMT friend spent some hours in jail for helping at an accident scene. If it's a child of any nationality I will help because to me that is worth spending a night in jail because of some backwards laws or whatever.

Good Samaritans Told To Walk On By

.

Good Advice

[bobbin]

^^

Wow! Good karma for you, Kata....

Some years back, on a large group ride outside Chiang Mai during Bike Week, a riding friend went off the side of a mountain road. Despite lots of manpower, took almost 2 hours to get him back up to the road. We used a flat board (lucky find) to help stabilize him during the ascent, then he ended up in the back of a pick-up to hospital. A very small hospital, where the nurses had no idea how to physically handle an almost 100kg farang. Those of us who accompanied the truck had to lift him onto the Xray table. None of us had any training but I knew that we had no choice but to do what we could.

He emerged from the hospital some weeks later as a quadriplegic.....

Last year, my brother was riding with a group of friends on the Going to the Sun Highway in Montana, when one if them also went over the side. No cell coverage. Almost 2 hours before an ambulance arrived. His friend died waiting...

Both accidents in mountainous terrain. Help is not coming soon...

[ChangNoi1]

First Aid Help should be a part of education, worldwide. A good friend of the family died of a heart-attach right on a subway-station. First Aid (and electric shocks) could have saved his life.

Well sometimes help can be very quick here. I live "upcountry" about 15km from Pattaya. Once my neighbore tried to kill himself by drinking accid. Luckily he told his sister. Within 10min a pickup-ambulance was at his house. Within 5min they brought him straight to Banglamung hospital, where first aid was given and within 1-hour he was then transported to Chonburi hospital. He made it out allright (probably thanks to the fact he mixed the accid with juice).

I am actually surprised that the big hospitals do not give stickers to put on your car (for their customers) to tell that in case of accident they should be transported by a real ambulance and brought to a real hospital.

But in the middle of nowhere I would be happy with any small clinic because most times they actually know what to do.

I always carry my hospital ID card with me as also my insurance ID card. At least I hopefully will not die because they think I can not pay for the medical care.

Chang Noi

[Zzinged]

You're right ChanNoi. It's well known that a lot of traffic accidents ended with the death of someone involved because no one knew basic first aid or CPR.

[BSJ]

I probably can't do anything about it, but it makes me sad to think that with a little basic information some deaths could be avoided and many many structural injuries could be minimalised or eliminated.