G'day all,
during last week I got back home from my (too brief) motorcycle ride to Carnarvon & Gascoyne Junction.
On the second afternoon of my ride, I arrived at the Geraldton home of some friends I'd not seen for a few years. Sat around chatting, looking at their new home, my mate's bikes & other toys and consumed a few beers - as you do. Then a few hours later and while his wife had nipped out to the late deli for some antacids to ease his indigestion, my mate Pat collapsed on the kitchen floor. I thought he'd fainted but soon realised it was more serious.
I'm still kicking myself for not having a bloody clue what to do. Luckily his wife returned while I was getting through to the ambos & she knew some CPR skills & with advice from the abulance centre we performed CPR for about 25 mins till the paramedics told us to stop. It seems he suffered a fairly major heart attack & it's inlikely we could have saved him but I am still haunted by my feelings of complete uselessness when I first saw him as I realised I had no idea of what to do.
I've never had any emergency or first aid training, something I am resolved to remedy very soon. I quite often spend time with mates (and others) in remote places when motorcycle touring and camping and we're all getting older and less resilient. I can't believe how much I've had my head buried in the sand about not having learned any skills to look after any of 'em if anything happens, be it accident or health related.
Sorry for the tragic tone of this post but I want to encourage as many people as possible to learn some first aid skills & to LEARN CPR! Don't do as I've done for way too long and pretend it'll never happen. You never know just when you may need it. Pat was 46 ! He lived life to the full and didn't look after himself as well as he should have - but how many of us do? I wish I could look back at the incident and feel confident I'd done all that was possible for anyone to do. I know I did all I could but...
I continued my trip & had a great time & saw some very interesting coastlines that I'm now dreaming of yakfishing. I can't wait to get back up there! Then, on the way home I attended Pat's funeral and wake. The time spent with so many of his friends and family remembering his life was a great help in coming to terms with the matter.
Two weeks after his death and the tragedy still dominates my thoughts. It's helped me to decide not to postpone a few things and to enjoy what life has to offer. So I can't wait for some good weather so I can get out on my Swing again. In fact the urge got so great that on Friday evening I went out for a paddle, in the rain! Only got a few undersize salmon but it definitely cleared my head for the weekend.
So please, LEARN CPR and more first aid skills.
And enjoy the life you have... This forum helps me do that
during last week I got back home from my (too brief) motorcycle ride to Carnarvon & Gascoyne Junction.
On the second afternoon of my ride, I arrived at the Geraldton home of some friends I'd not seen for a few years. Sat around chatting, looking at their new home, my mate's bikes & other toys and consumed a few beers - as you do. Then a few hours later and while his wife had nipped out to the late deli for some antacids to ease his indigestion, my mate Pat collapsed on the kitchen floor. I thought he'd fainted but soon realised it was more serious.
I'm still kicking myself for not having a bloody clue what to do. Luckily his wife returned while I was getting through to the ambos & she knew some CPR skills & with advice from the abulance centre we performed CPR for about 25 mins till the paramedics told us to stop. It seems he suffered a fairly major heart attack & it's inlikely we could have saved him but I am still haunted by my feelings of complete uselessness when I first saw him as I realised I had no idea of what to do.
I've never had any emergency or first aid training, something I am resolved to remedy very soon. I quite often spend time with mates (and others) in remote places when motorcycle touring and camping and we're all getting older and less resilient. I can't believe how much I've had my head buried in the sand about not having learned any skills to look after any of 'em if anything happens, be it accident or health related.
Sorry for the tragic tone of this post but I want to encourage as many people as possible to learn some first aid skills & to LEARN CPR! Don't do as I've done for way too long and pretend it'll never happen. You never know just when you may need it. Pat was 46 ! He lived life to the full and didn't look after himself as well as he should have - but how many of us do? I wish I could look back at the incident and feel confident I'd done all that was possible for anyone to do. I know I did all I could but...
I continued my trip & had a great time & saw some very interesting coastlines that I'm now dreaming of yakfishing. I can't wait to get back up there! Then, on the way home I attended Pat's funeral and wake. The time spent with so many of his friends and family remembering his life was a great help in coming to terms with the matter.
Two weeks after his death and the tragedy still dominates my thoughts. It's helped me to decide not to postpone a few things and to enjoy what life has to offer. So I can't wait for some good weather so I can get out on my Swing again. In fact the urge got so great that on Friday evening I went out for a paddle, in the rain! Only got a few undersize salmon but it definitely cleared my head for the weekend.
So please, LEARN CPR and more first aid skills.
And enjoy the life you have... This forum helps me do that