Explosions go off, chaos consumes the moment and afterwards you realize you are still alive! What comes next? Your prior planning.............
We talk about having situational awareness, looking for the exits when you enter an area is part of this. Now is the time you can put this to use. Maybe you can lead others to the exit? Maybe everyone is stampeding toward the obvious exit and you can go out a different way? For the photo above, taken in the subway system after today's attack, knowing where the exit is important. If this is your daily commute odds are you know which exit is closer. Is it faster to walk toward the station you just left or head down the tracks to the next one?
Here is also where your Every Day Carry comes into use. Do you carry a flashlight? A lighter? These things might seem like a nuisance until the day you NEED them......... During almost any emergency there is going to be a time period you are on your own. How long this goes on depends on the situation. Your prior planning is all you will have to rely on during this time frame......
Prior planning also includes prior skills building. Skills building includes thinking through "what if's". You're in the situation the lady in the above photo is caught in..... What do you do? What if that was you with your child? Would you seek a position of cover? Would you try to exit the area? Would your next priority be to check yourself and child for injuries? What if this was you or your loved ones? Would they or you have prepared to have options in this case? Thinking through situations gives you starting point, a mental checklist, to start at when things go bad. You already have given yourself a framework from which to operate from and this decreases your time to reaction.
Everyone reading this needs to learn basic first aid!!!! No exceptions and no excuses!!! Everyone in your family should understand basic first aid and I challenge each of you to take a class THIS MONTH! Not next month or maybe when you have more time. Set the goal, within the next thirty days you will take a first aid class. Having this skill allows you to take care of yourself during those moments you are on your own. If you can help yourself medical responders can focus on those who are more injured. If you can tend to yourself and become mobile you can exit the area.
This fundamental knowledge of first aid also allows you to help others if the situation allows it. If the situation is; you are uninjured, there is no immediate threat to your safety, you can put this knowledge to work and help others to survive.
Multiple people with basic first aid skills can greatly increase the number of injured people who survive their injuries. Simply knowing how to secure a tourniquet or apply direct pressure to a wound could be the difference between someone dying or living to see their loved ones again. You can help others and yourself make it home with some fundamental knowledge!
Having skills and supplies could make the difference. If you carry a bag every day some simple medical supplies can be tossed in. These items and skill set could save your life during those moments you are on your own during an emergency.
Time and again during these incidents you can see people without any idea what to do. People waiting for others to do things they themselves could or should be able to do. People being overwhelmed by the situation. People who are becoming part of the problem instead of helping. People becoming victims of the situation, be it from lack of physical skills, mental skills or having never gone through 'what if's'. Bad things happen, the question is what have you done prior to and during the event to help you make it through the bad day. What can you do to help others make it through the bad day?
As Always,
Stay Safe!
No comments:
Post a Comment