Emergencies on the range - how prepared are you?

[meles meles]

Can't you bald monkeys apply for a club pistol as part of your first aid kit, to be used for humane despatch?

[dromia]

For your information Mr Brock there is a difference 'tween humane dispatch and dispatching humans.

[Chuck]

[meles meles]

Let's not quibble over a single vowel...

[5thGen]

A huge mistake regarding range accidents is how they are alerted to the emergency services.

Most of this will be commons sense to most, but as we all know common sense isn't a flower that grows in everyone's garden.

Mentioning 'someone's been shot' to 999 slows everything down, waiting for the police to rock up and declare the scene safe for paramedics could take months.

I'm only being slightly sarcastic.

Ultimately command, control and communication under conditions of crisis is hugely important and next to providing a rapid pre hospital trauma assessment and if necessary basic life support, is the most important thing you can do to get the casualty to definitive care.

An emergency response plan should be planned and drilled, and depending on your clubs position and layout there should be provision for members to get hi viz'd and and positioned on any boundaries with the road, and others to move their vehicles to emergency positions - ensuring that emergency vehicles can enter, collect a casualty, turn around and get to definitive care.

Depending on what the operator asks you, the essential takeaways are that information should be lacking in emotive language, fact not flapping.

1) Call 999 - Ambulance please - there's been an 'accident at our target shooting club' NOT 'someone's been shot' or 'a guns exploded'.

If the incident wasn't caused by firearms ie a heart attack, 'my mate was clutching his chest and is now unconscious' NOT 'my mate was shooting and then...'


2) There's no further danger, all guns and ammunition have been locked away.

They want to know the scene is safe.


3) Take note of the injury and the type of ammunition used.

Expanding ammunition is occasionally used on ranges, furthermore non metallic ammo is becoming more common place, causing issues for radiographers although imagine would be visible on MRI - Odd Jobs area, not mine.

Much more could be said, back of a fag packet stuff.

[5thGen]

The problem with gunshot wounds is that the damage is often unpredictable and distant from any surface wounds. See Case 5 here:

http://tinyurl.com/hhhyz6n

I've seen more than 3000 gunshot wounds as a radiographer, but that's at a trauma unit, not at the scene.
Although the shooting outside the Royal Free Hospital in 2004 was very fresh since I heard the shots as I was coming out of the hospital and I saw the perps riding away on a motorcycle. I had to stop a number 24 bus from riding over evidence (a 9x19mm cartridge case)...
Two people were shot, and they ran straight into the A&E. Less than 50 yards from the scene of the shooting to the resus bay!

Convenient time and place to get shot - if there ever was one!

You're quite right, entrance wound and where the bullet ends up are often worlds apart.

However, given that this is regarding the prehospital environment, the same CA(c)BCDE rules apply.

The platinum 10 pays for the golden 60!

[Richardd]

Just for your information .... I'm a medical supplier and we make the emergency kits that Police Scotland Firearms Units carry.

If your Club wants a heavily discounted kit made to their specification (especially if they don't need a box/bag) them please give us a call.

www.baymed.co.uk 01355 270500 and ask for Jayne - no point asking for me, I'm the boss and therefore know nothing ;-)

[dromia]

I know this is a for sale but is germane to the topic and useful to clubs so I am going to leave the offer here for the present.

If anyone is interested then please contact Richard/Jayne of forum so that this does not become a for sale thread.

[Richardd]

Thanks, Dromia.
I do the same for kids sports clubs and motorsports clubs - all the things I'm interested in ;-)

[DL.]

Also here's another supplier of emergency first aid kit that I can recommend -
http://www.fentonpharmaceuticals.com/tr ... e_home.php