After being rescued, don’t become a victim of the rescue.

This past Memorial Day 2015, flooding produced a chilling event in which an elderly couple had been rescued and were in the rescue boat with a pair of firemen when the rescue boat itself flipped over, and the elderly couple drowned after being rescued.

 

There are hundreds of similar stories of rescuers becoming the victims themselves and the victims dying after or during the rescue. Farmers who enter silos or sludge pits to rescue someone, being overcome or trapped by the same hazard. Good Samaritans who stop on the highway to help a stranded motorist, getting run over by a subsequent vehicle. Firemen, emergency techs and rescuers in earthquakes and disasters who end up getting trapped and overcome by the disaster themselves.

Our favorite boating sport has its own list of rescuers who themselves became victims of the rapids, floodwaters or waterfalls while attempting a rescue.

WHEN RESCUING SOMEONE, BE AWARE OF THE DANGERS OF THE SITUATION AND DO NOT MAKE IT WORSE.

While our first impulse is to rush in and help rescue or attend to a victim, FIRST look around at the situation and determine if the situation is safe. If not, make it safe first. Or take steps to make it as safe as possible before launching a rescue attempt.

In first aid classes, they stress that the FIRST thing you do, is survey the scene to evaluate whether it is safe. It is the most neglected concern about first aid. In order to help, you have to be safe first. An emergency tends to focus your attention on the victims and not on the environment. You need to continually fight against that focus, and be aware of your wider surroundings. Weather can change and make a safe situation unsafe. Other people, traffic, or boats can arrive suddenly and change the situation. Work to be safe DURING AND AFTER A RESCUE, too.

Stay safe out there!

 

- Harmon Everett

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The author, Harmon Everett