When I am teaching first aid (it is mandatory for all staff in peacekeeping to learn this skill), I oft start off with a timed experiment. A 3 inch nail (1/3rd of an AK-47 bullet) is used to pierce the bottom of a half litre bottle filled with water. How long does it take it to drain under gravitational force? Usually an extrapolation of this time under pressure, yields about 8 minutes for draining 3 litres, that if it was man, it’s enough blood loss to cause a comma and possible death, if it was a bleeding wound.
I therefore oft explain, that it is vanity, to ship a bleeding trauma victim to the hospital before doing first aid. Proper first aid saves life and promotes recovery. In that lesson, we also often emphasize not extracting objects stuck in the body. Just imagine, the first responders had attempted to extract the impaled bullet in the Gen Edward Katumba Wamala’s shoulder. He would have bled to death.
Everything one needs to use to do first aid can be improvised, except the basic skills. Let everyone get an opportunity to learn to do first aid (especially in formative years). In that way, fewer people would be delivered dead on arrival (DOA) after the accidents/trauma incidents, usually a result of injuries exercabated by poor handling . We should also teach all how to case evacuate trauma victims to health facilities. Not every mobile device is suitable for this.
Ofcourse, it would be best, if every office, home or car had a first aid kit, but we should teach our people how to improvise one. E.g. how to make a bandage or pressure compressions from a linen material, or make a stretcher from a blanket or a lesu.
Gen Katumba my mentor and referee, you triple survived: 1. instant death due to bullet trauma if the assassin’s had gotten target to your vital organs, 2. Serious traumatic injuries due to traffic accident following the traumatic instant death of your driver. 3. Death by catastrophic bleeding due to bullet trauma in artery.
Always thank your God and those wananchi who insisted you go to the nearest health facility. Had a pick up stopped (aren’t we lucky police pickups seldom appear as the only evacuating vehicles?) and taken you to any Hospital 8 minutes away, you would be DOA, i.e. the winds that dry clothes (embuyaga ezikaza ebikunta). Better if they and/or your survivor bodyguard had done some basic first aid. Champion the teaching of first aid. The Uganda Red Cross Society has enough skilled personnel to train trainers of trainers to train All.
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