danger

My uncle used to say that people were often guilty of "knowing enough to be dangerous." He once made me angy by using that phrase on my sister but in hindsight he was correct.  She was most of the way through her medical school rotation and felt fairly confident about her knowledge but as it turned out, she still had a lot more to learn and experience.

I was first certified in basic first aid and CPR when I was sixteen but after I moved to Hong Kong I was unable to find a re-certification course that was feasible with my schedule and need for English medium.  Recently though, I decided to make an effort because while my team has its own physio, some of the other teams for our club do not and there have been a few situations where I have filled in.
I signed on for a course that began today (Sunday) which may have been a day too late.  Yesterday I watched a serious neck injury occur to a front row player.  As a front row player, I am aware of how badly things can go wrong when your eight guys are pushing against their eight guys and you are in the middle, arms pinned behind you, and then suddenly something becomes misaligned and everything wrenches sideways on your neck.

I was upstairs viewing the match and the team had two physios who immediately went into action, initially supporting the player's neck and spine.  Then a couple things happened that I was not comfortable with.  Unfortunately I suffered from a lack of confidence due to my lapsed first aid certification; also physios are much more highly trained and people with higher skills can employ techniques that a basic first aider would never attempt.  Still, there are some things that don't change no matter what the skill level, and I should have remembered that keeping a person's spine stable is one of them.

I took the course today and was regretful for what I should have, could have done.