We had friends over from SV Necesse yesterday with their wee ones. They are very much boat kids at 5 and 2.5 years old, but still accidents happen. Poor little Ellia slipped climbing up one of our salon windows and busted open her lip. Oh the blood and tears, it broke my heart. The cut was pretty deep and in such a tough place. It’s pretty bad in situations like those when my mothering skills kick in and my first aid skills jump out the hatch and go for a snorkel. I never thought of putting on pressure and draining her mouth of blood, I just wanted to squeeze her and kiss it better. Genevieve had that all under control and I felt useless. What’s worse is that it happened on our boat. If you’re going to bring blood to the party please make it in the form of a bloody mary. So today I sat down with the girls and went over our first aid kids book. We recapped on what to do in an emergency and letting adults have space if they are tending to someone hurt. We looked at CPR techniques for kids and babies. What to do when we find an unconscious person and how to help the adults. I printed out some quick grab CPR sheets and laminated them, I’d hate to have a brain fart in that sort of situation.
We are very well equipped on Salty when it comes to first aid. We have a suture kit, epipens, dental kit, bucket load of prescription meds and even an emergency birth kit which we will NEVER EVER use!!!! I hope never to use any of our supplies but it does make us feel better knowing that we have them onboard. Our go to gal is Carl’s cousin in the States who is a Physicians Assistant and has agreed to give us medical advice where ever we are, thanks Brittany for being a phone call away.
Safety is our number one priority on board but accidents do happen. From now on it will be my job as boat nurse to hold crew meetings once a month to go over where all the safety gear is kept and run drills, this is when I’m not wearing my mum, teacher or chef hat.
Pri caught Carl off guard today when he laid down on the floor for a rest, she starting blowing up his nose to give him CPR. We’re pretty tired these days so I understand how she misunderstood the signs of a spent man over an unconscious one. Thanks Pri, you almost saved a life today and now daddy will nap with one eye open.
And to our poor Ellia, we hope you’re feeling better today and are smiling up a storm soon. Kisses
Knock on wood, so far our kids aren’t allergic to anything but they are young and haven’t tried all the wonders of the world yet. EpiPen’s will be our savior in the event of a severe allergic reaction.
We’ve never used QuikClot but I’ve heard it’s a miracle treatment for traumatic bleeding. I never want to find out how well it works.
This nurse is signing out, putting on her Chef hat to cook some chicken wings for dinner.
