When time and training is of the essence

Many first aiders envisage that they will be dealing with work-based
accidents in their role however, as this personal account from Paula Farrell, a
director of first aid training company Aid Training shows, you never know
who will need life saving help at work and for what reason

After a visit to my GP for a
chest infection I was
prescribed antibiotics,
which I have had many times
before. As I was in town, a trip to
the bakers to pick up a sandwich
and some jam doughnuts for the
girls in the office seemed a must!
Back in the office I ate the tuna fish
sandwich and then took the first
dose of antibiotics. It was then that
my hands started to frantically itch
and my lips started to tingle.

As an employee of a first aid training
company I am lucky to be
surrounded by people with strong
first aid and medical backgrounds.

My colleague – a qualified nurse –
took one look at me and said: “You
need to get to hospital now!”
We extracted another colleague
from a training course – ironically a
first responder course – who drove
me straight to our local hospital, less
than two minutes drive away, while
an ambulance was called to meet me
there. His aim was to get me the
adrenaline in the quickest time.

The reaction was fast, I had
severe vomiting, diarrhoea, loss of
sight and collapsed within little more
than five minutes from the start of
the reaction. Although my colleague’s
experience and knowledge was
hugely reassuring, I genuinely
thought I was going to die.

I was given the required injection
and taken in the ambulance to
hospital, where I spent the day on
drips and under observation. It was a
very frightening experience, one that
many people experience and do not
survive – this is a life threatening
condition.

My thoughts after this event were,
what if I had been alone or with
someone who had no idea what was
happening to me? What if a reaction
occurred to someone who couldn’t
call for an ambulance or get anyone
to help? What if this happened to a
child and the parent had no idea of
what was happening?
The speed in which this condition
becomes life threatening requires
people around the victim to
recognise the symptoms and manage
the situation quickly.

I take some solace in knowing that
our company has trained hundreds of
thousands of people over the last
decade in anaphylaxis awareness and
I was lucky that the people around
me knew how to react, I’m not sure
all employees would be so fortunate.