First Aid Drill & Basics Talk
by Mr Nicholas Chong Won Xiu from St. John Ambulance of Malaysia

Jointly reported by:
Lew Yuen Teng 15070 Sr3ComA
Tee Jia Xien 16332 Sr2B
Lee Ai Lin 16642 Sr2ScC

On Saturday, 22 February 2020, St. John Ambulance volunteer, Mr Nicholas Chong Won Xiu was invited to Kuen Cheng High School to give a talk about first aid drill during emergency. This session has been specially designed for Senior 1, 2 and 3 students to create self-awareness on safety and enhance the first aid knowledge within the school community.

The talk began at 10:30 a.m. with a brief introduction by Nicholas himself. He had been serving the St. John Ambulance for fifteen years and an experienced volunteer in handling all types of emergency cases. To make the talk more interesting, he enumerated accidents and emergency rescue cases he had encountered, with a great sense of humour. The talk touched on five main topics, which are first aid introduction, emergency treatment, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), choking and the basic wound treatment.

He first told us the importance of having first aid skills. In our perception, what we have to do when an emergency case occurred is to call 999 immediately. This is truly the right way. But does the ambulance arrive as quickly as we expected? He asked. When we dial 999, the call is not connected directly to the hospital but Telekom Malaysia (TM). Time is lost just by communicating with the telephone receptionist. First, you have to identify yourself, then explain the situation on-site and give them a specific location. After the long procedures which lasts usually about 15 minutes, TM will then help to contact a nearby hospital about the accident for the dispatch of an ambulance to the actual scene. Sadly, most ambulance arrives within 30 minutes upon demand. In emergency cases, every minute counts. While waiting for the ambulance to arrive, first aid treatment is the only thing we can do to lengthen the surviving time of the needed. This is why first aid treatment should be ready at all times.

There are a few steps when we face emergency cases. First, we should put our safety as a priority, be sure you will not have any danger while helping the wounded (D). Secondly, we have to check their response (R) and verify whether the person is conscious or not. If he still awakens, ask for his name and what had happened. By then, you have to shout for help (S). Always remember that you are not able to overcome the case alone without any help. Call the pedestrians, some of them may be able to help. What to do next is to ensure a clear airway (A), followed by checking their breathing (B) and start CPR if the breathing is abnormal (C). Apply defibrillator if available and follow voice prompts (D). These are the DRSABCD action plan.

CPR, also known as cardiopulmonary resuscitation, is an emergency life-saving procedure that is done when one’s breathing or heartbeat has stopped. This may happen after an electric shock, heart attack, or drowning. CPR combines rescue breathing and chest compressions. According to Nicholas, he did 29 times of CPR in different emergency cases, but the students were shocked to know that only 2 survived. Although the success rescue rate of CPR is low, it is better than doing nothing at all. In short, every one of us has to learn basic CPR skills.

After that, he explained about choking situations. People get choked when our airway is blocked by a foreign object which affects our breathing. For first aid, firstly, give five back slaps between the victim’s shoulder blades then give five abdominal thrusts. This action uses the air from the diaphragm to push the object out. However, if the victim is unconscious, after clearing the airway, we should begin to do CPR to make sure he’s breathing. He also taught us basic wound treatment. Through a wound type’s illustration, he showed us different types of wounds. He then explained the causes of each wound, such as incision wound, abrasion, puncture wound and penetration wound, as well as how to treat it correctly. The first thing to do in treating wounds is to clean it with water or a mixture of Dettol and water to avoid infection. After that, we can wrap up the wound with bandages. If the wound is bleeding, we must apply pressure to stop the bleeding or we can wrap the bandages tightly. In the hospital, medical glue or stitches may be used to close the wound.

Moving on, our guest speaker Nicholas opened a Q&A session. A student shared his experience on witnessing a motorcyclist caught in an accident at a highway. He went down from the car to check if the motorcyclist is alright and dialled 999. The call did not go well as they asked for his specific location which to his dismay, there was no specific landmark nearby. Therefore, it had taken a while until the ambulance arrived. His question was what he should do while waiting for the ambulance’s arrival. Nicholas advised that we should strike a conversation with the casualty to prevent them to fall unconscious and treat their injuries if possible. Another student wondered about ways to help a haemophilia patient, according to Nicholas, when someone is injured, we should send him or her to a hospital immediately, bandage the injured areas while changing the gauze frequently. We also did a short interview with Nicholas after the talk. He had been a St. John Ambulance Club member since his secondary school days and continued voluntarily until today. He had always a passion to help people in need and enjoyed the feeling of being able to help others. What a great guy Nicholas is.