Casualty management

 

Spine and neck injuries are a possibilites but give that (most) dinghy crashes are low speed and most people crewing safety boats at sailing clubs are volunteers you have to give them an overview of the most likely situations which are drowning and hypothermia.

 

At the end of the day you and only do what you can do at any given incident. Regretably sometimes this may not be enough (this from a former first aider who had someone die on them from a heart attack). The main priority is to get the casualty out of the water and administer first aid and get them ashore as quickly and safely as possible. At that point the professionals can take over.

 

No doubt there can be lessons learnt from this incident not least of which is observation is key when sailing on a crowded race course and being aware of potential incidents (and giving additonal requirements to hail may help).

 

At large events such as this one then it may be practical to have at leat 1 safety boat crewed with a paramedic, at grass roots level this is just not possible.

and why might people sailing drown ?  because of head and neck injuries   from the boom striking them  or being struck by another boat ... 

 the " it'll never happen " has happened  with the unfortunate incident in Aus , will it take a fatality for attitudes to change ?

 

It is common sense if you ask me but should be written down.

 

We have the rule at Hunts and we are a small inland club where the shore is never much more than 30 secnds way by powerboat at full throttle.

i'm not sure of any SCIs  from Sailing but given the fact Tess Lloyd was knocked clean out and  needed Neurosurgery and is still  anaesthetisted on ICU ...  

boat to boat collisions is not necessarily the issue  ,although someone  on the wire  thrown forward  in a collision  or someone struck by a boom with the full force of a crash gybe  is getting a lot of energy exchange in a short period of time 

as for the point about an unconcious crewmember and their partner holding on to them and the boat  the unconcious person is either going to be on their back being held / towed in the classical lifeguarding  'chin tow'  or semi erect  pulled up again their crewmate  with one of their crewmates arms under their axilla 'hugging' them to keep their head out of the water ( resting on their crewmates shoulder )  and the other arm treading water or holding on to the boat .

wrong guess on the RN ... given the topic is casualty management what else might it mean ?  ( to save people from further puzzlement I'm a registered Nurse and my clinical  background is in three main areas - prehospital care, Emergency departments and Spinal injuries rehab)