Testimonials

Knowledge and Information is Power!

 I found the course easy to understand.  Michelle answered all my questions and I wasn’t embarrassed to ask anything.  I feel I can do a lot more in an emergency now, not that I ever want to. 

A day at the beach...

My daughter (5) and I were at the beach and had been in and out of the water for about an hour we were about to go when she asked if we could have one more splash in the water. I was standing maybe knee deep in the water and my daughter was crawling around on her hands and knees at the waters edge when suddenly she started screaming like I've never heard before. I picked her up and a box jellyfish had wrapped around her thighs and arm.

As I was running to my car with her in my arms I started to feel this unbelievable pain shoot down my arms and on my stomach I looked down and when I had picked up my daughter I had transferred some of the tentacles on me. I knew in my car was a bottle of vinegar and that it was the best thing to put on her stings before getting her to hospital , I dumped the entire bottle on her wrapped her in a towel and rushed her to the hospital where they saw her straight away.

I can't begin to tell you how horrified I was to see the red thick welts that covered my daughters thighs, arms and stomach at that stage I was convinced she would be in hospital for weeks and she would end up being horribly scarred. The doctor came over and said that pouring the vinegar on her as soon as I did was what would help her heal quickly and by the morning I would be surprised at how well she had recovered. So in disbelief that this doctor was going to send us home and convinced I would be back because there was no way she was going to heal.

She didn't have the best night sleeps because she was in a bit of pain but the doctor said the best thing to do is treat the stings like a burn so keep her cool with ice packs and cooling sprays and give a pain killer like pain stop which I did. I was completely shocked by how she looked in the morning; the swelling had gone the thick red welts had disappeared into small thin red lines and she said they didn't sting anymore and were just a little bit itchy. Two weeks later she is healing nicely and in another week or 2 the marks will all be gone. So to anyone living in the tropics PLEASE make sure you have a bottle of vinegar with you when you go to the beach it really can make a huge difference when stung by a box Jellyfish. 

Effects of an unplanned tantrum

My daughter (aged 2) threw a tantrum near a window, tripped over and her head went through the window, deeply cutting her forehead. The next thing I knew I was crying in the bathroom, holding the two edges of the cut together, trying to control the bleeding and trying to think of what to do next.

The blood was everywhere and my older child (aged 4-1/2)was crying hysterically at seeing all of this unfold. I didn't know if there was any glass in her forehead or eye and was scared to look, but really needed padding to help control the bleeding, which I did. My older child, through tears, was telling me that I "have to call the doctor to fix her!" which is when I instructed her to get the phone and rang 000 immediately.

The ambulance arrived not long afterward and most of the bleeding had stopped. We went to the hospital where we were informed she'd need plastic surgery which was booked for the next day. It's some months down the track, the scar is looking less red, and even now when I'm doing her hair and she sees the scar in the mirror she mentions when "I bopped my head on the window". Thank God I knew what to do though, as I was so panicked that I could have froze, instead I know that I helped a potentially disastrous situation turn out the best it possibly could.

Staying warm turns to tragedy

My baby was not yet crawling and was about 9 months old. The house was really cold with no heating except a little fire place, as we were heading out soon I didn't light it, instead turned on the bar heater.

Knowing this was a danger to my baby I kept it well out of my baby's reach, barriers in the way and kept a close eye. I turned my back for a second to hang up the phone, and heard a terrible scream. My baby was on the ground screaming hysterically - then I saw it. A burn mark on her forehead. I panicked at first before thinking back to first aid advice and thought "it's not your baby, it's a patient, what do you do?"

Instantly I calmed down enough to take control and do what was needed. The next 10 minutes seemed like 10 hours but all the advice told me this is what was needed whilst I ran cool water from the bath over my baby's forehead, so it poured toward the top of the head (not down the face). After this time I raced her to the doctor who saw her straight away and then asked me a question that's been ringing in my ears ever since.

"Was your baby burnt anywhere else?" In all my efforts to keep calm and do all the right things, I was so focused on what I saw that I neglected to look and was scared at what the doctor might find. There was a burn all across the palm of my baby's hand, and on the finger tips. I felt terrible that this burn was never treated! The doctor rang the hospital and we took her there straight away.

The burn on the forehead didn't look too angry, but it looked like the skin had totally parted on her tiny little hand, not to mention the blisters on the finger tips. When we saw the doctor at the hospital, he explained that the forehead burn was a 3rd degree burn! But since the first aid was treated so well on the forehead, my baby didn't need skin grafting and it should heal well.

The burn on the hand looked a LOT worse but apparently that one was superficial and would make a complete recovery. My baby is now 5 and no scarring on the hand, and you can't see the scar on the forehead unless you really look hard for it.

I just wish I could have saved a lot more pain had I looked for any other injuries as well, but it still could have been a lot worse but thankfully wasn't.

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