A good gathering of members of the Lentune Ladies Probus Club enjoyed their coffee and biscuits while they waited for the arrival of Steve and Colin, the First Responders, who were the speakers for the morning. It turned out that their late arrival was because they passed a very recent RTA and stopped to help. They were able to leave once the Fire Brigade had arrived. 

Once organised, Steve gave a fascinating and enlightening talk about their role as First Responders. 

They are volunteers, very well trained, who are often the first on scene after a 999 call, alerted by call handlers of South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS). They are particularly important at the extremes of calls, either Category 1 (life-threatening) or Cat 4 (non-injury falls). 

We learnt valuable tips on how to save lives and how to help if someone has fallen. We could differentiate between an heart attack and a cardiac arrest and they demonstrated how to use a defibrillator and perform CPR. 

The fascinating presentation ended with a brief discussion about Do Not Resuscitate (DNR), Advance Decisions and the Respect Form. It appeared that in the absence of anything like this one should attempt to help the patient.

I think everyone present felt they had learned some valuable tips about they might help someone and would be more confident even if it was instructing another person how to help. 

The morning ended with the usual excellent lunch and a convivial chat with friends.