Today’s training was long but great fun 8:30 to 7:15pm meant everyone was wiped out by the end but had learnt a lot. A veritable cocktail of First Aid topics. The plaster casts were great fun as each person had to put a back cast on either a leg or arm. A back cast is a temporary cast which allows the limb to still swell but immobilises it.

The Splinting was another outdoor session where we got to play with the many different splints and stretchers that BAS has and also a little innovation using some skis and ice axes.

The injections we didn’t do on each other as it might have been too painful so instead some oranges were injected with saline solution. Our last station was where we had a puff of entonox which actually I didn’t seem to feel any effect from – it is used on base as an anaesthesia.

I have also been given some travel information. I will be flying commercial plane (LanChile) from the UK to Santiago to Punta Arenas Chile where I will spend a night. Then from Punta Arenas onto the Falklands where I will spend a night in Stanley and wait for a weather window to head to Rothera on the BAS Dash 7. Apparently all your kit is under a cargo net and then they have seats in the back it will take around 4-5 hours. I leave the UK on the 12th November but that is subject to change I have been told to be ready to go a few weeks earlier or indeed later.

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Lectures of 20 minutes each today were on
Breathing Difficulties
Shock and Bleeding
Consciousness and lack of it
Spinal Injuries
Injuries to Limbs
Thermal Problems

Again we had skills sessions ranging from 25 minutes to 50 minutes each on
Basic Life Support
Airway Maintenance
Minor Injuries, wounds, bandages and pressure dressings
AED Defibrillator
Plaster casts
Splinting, casualty handling, cervical collars, stretchers
Entonox and Analgesia
Giving Intramuscular Injections
Major Incident Response
Stabilisation and Transport