First Aid

Today I administered first aid.

I’m recording this for my own educational value, documenting what I did well and what I could have done better. I’m also writing to avoid taking the whole story with me to bed tonight.

I was driving out of Carmzow with my family when the car just before us stopped at the site of an accident. A small car had hit a tree.

I’m a first-aider at work, so I knew I had an obligation to help—in Germany, every citizen must administer first aid, unless it’s unsafe to do so. Coincidentally, I completed a refresher training just a few weeks ago.

I took a second to consider whether there were any safety concerns for my family, then grabbed my cellphone to be able to call 112 if necessary, stepped out of the car and moved towards the people on the side of the road.

Immediately, I was relieved not to see anyone lying unconscious on the ground. As I approached the group, it looked like two people were sitting on the ground injured and being looked after by an elderly couple. A few meters away, right next to the smoking, crashed car, two men were standing, one speaking on the phone.

The first thing I did when I reached the victims was to identify myself as a first-aider. This was an idea I had come up with a few years ago after having hesitated to administer first aid in another situation where people were already with the victim. My thinking was that in doing so, my presence would be justified, and I could check if anyone of the other people present were qualified as well.

So I told the group I was a first-aider and asked if I could assist, which the elderly people seemed to appreciate. I immediately knelt down and started talking to the two victims, easily recognized by the blood on their faces and their shocked expressions. They were so young, hardly 16 years old! Their car had a “45” sticker on it, indicating that it could be driven without a driving licence.

The young girl seemed to be in the worst state, so I gently touched her arm to make contact and asked how she was feeling. She complained of pain in the abdomen and in her neck. The elderly couple told me that she was feeling nauseous as well. Her boyfriend looked hurt but generally OK. He was squatting next to her. I asked him to sit in a more stable position, lest he injure himself should he collapse of shock all of a sudden, but he said he was OK like that. I didn’t insist (I probably should have, in hindsight).

I confess that I completely blanked on what to do about the abdominal pain. Have her lay down? Remain seated? Offer some water? My intuition told me that it wasn’t quite that important, as long as she was awake, and I decided not to worry about it.

I then asked if someone had called 112, and the elderly couple pointed at the man a few meters away on the phone. He confirmed that he had been talking to the emergency services for 10 minutes by that point.

So with the most pressing things checked—still conscious and breathing, 112 call issued—I just started talking to them, mostly trying to be reassuring. Simple stuff, like “Help is on the way, we’re going to stay with you until the ambulance arrives,” or a slightly lighter “So you guys are having quite an experience today!”. It seemed to help to establish contact with the boy. The girl was feeling too unwell for chit-chat, which was fine by me: as long as she’s moaning, I thought, she’s conscious. Good.

At some point, she laid down on the ground. In 2016, I had a cycling accident and dislocated my right shoulder, the pain making it impossible to get up. I vividly remember how quickly I had got terribly cold and started shivering. I asked the boy if he had a blanket of sorts in his car and tried to open the boot. That wasn’t too wise: there was no smoke any more, but who knows what could have happened?

Since I couldn’t get it open anyway, I went to my own car to fetch one of our blankets, but realised on the way that there would be a survival blanket in our first aid kit. Our boot was full, but I had got into the habit of placing the first aid kit and the warning triangle such that I can access them even with lots of luggage, so that was a quick operation. I returned to the group and wrapped the blanket around the girl’s shoulders, as she had got up to a seated position again by then. I told her that the blanket was only there in case she got cold, and that she could remove it if she didn’t feel she needed it. She kept it, but complained that she was very hot and didn’t want to be touched when the boy put his hand on her back. I was worried that she’d start panicking soon, but didn’t otherwise react.

Pretty soon, we heard sirens. I got up and went to the side of the road to indicate the location, and was slightly disappointed to see it was in fact a police car. One of them went to the victims, quickly checked their state and asked a few questions, while his colleague went over to have a look at the car.

Another siren. I returned to the side of the road and this time it was an ambulance. I waved again and pointed towards the victims, so they would know where to park the truck. I quickly informed the first paramedic of the girl’s abdomen and neck pain and then stepped away, since they were now in good hands. He equally quickly decided that she was the one needing a stretcher.

While the other paramedic was getting the stretcher out, I asked if I could assist, but he said he didn’t need any help. Once they had the girl safely strapped in there, the first paramedic asked the boy to go sit in the truck. He refused, wanting to stay with this girlfriend, but the paramedic insisted and instructed me to take him to the truck and ensure he was sitting down. I wrestled for a few seconds with the folding seat, but eventually got him seated. I told him not to worry about anything and especially not to blame himself, which he was obviously doing, but rather focus on getting checked up.

At that point, he took my hand and asked me to do him a favour. I said sure, and then understood that he wanted me to take care of his girlfriend. I was a bit confused because, obviously, he’d be the one riding with her to the hospital, not me. But then I realised that he was actually asking me to take good care of myself (in German, “she” and the formal “you” sound the same).

His way of saying thank you, I suppose.

In hindsight, I should probably have stayed with him in the truck until the paramedics were there, as he could easily have gone into shock at that point and fallen off the chair.

As I stepped away from the truck and picked up the survival blanket left on the ground, the man who had called the emergency services came over to me and commended me for how I had acted all along. That touched me deeply.

A few minutes later, we were on our way. I declined D’s offer to drive, feeling quite fine. But some time later, I suddenly felt tears welling up. Not that there had been any big pressure or drama or even much blood, but the thought of these two young people so vulnerable, seeing them hurt and shocked, and also that man’s generosity in telling me how well I had handled the situation: all of that stirred up quite some emotion.

I managed to hold things together and kept driving in silence.

I hope they’ll both be OK.