Emergency Response and First Aid Training|| First Ever Bikers Open House Meeting||

Did you know that the biking community is one of the most welcoming, safe and supportive community you’ll ever join ?? Today I got to find all that out. Come with me as I attend my first ever bikers open house meeting.

You know how the good book says that “ the steps of a man are ordered”? That’s how we stumbled upon the event. So my friend and I had planned a road trip for Saturday be then we got word that the portharcourt panthers - the female group of the portharcourt bikers were hosting their first ever open house and we just had to go check it out.
We didn’t know what to expect, be it bike racing or whatever but you should know that there’s always a fun party at any bikers meeting.
We got there some minutes past 12pm as the meeting was slated for 2pm, but as Nigerians behave, the meeting proper started by some minutes past 4pm.
What were we doing in the mean time you may ask??
Biking around town and enjoying the urban view that portharcourt city offers.

The meeting had not started as you can see and once the host noticed we had become antsy, she provided us something to snack on

By the time we had traversed the portharcourt landscape, most of the bikers had arrived and it was time for our meeting. For context, one of the most pressing issues in biking is accident as most road users are very careless. It’s been said that when driving, you drive for two, yourself and others, to the best of my understanding only bikers fully understand this rule. This makes it a very stressful venture to ply the roads as more often than not, they encounter near accidents. This is why every biker should be understand the basics of first aid and be an effective and efficient first aid respondant. For this, we need to know how to administer CPR - stands for Cardio pulmonary resuscitation

The portharcourt panthers had called on the expertise of some medical personnel amongst them and you know it was about to be a lit meeting.

We were asked to join a site, and then had a Q&A quiz. The essence was to know how much we knew about first aid .once this was through, the doctor explained what first aid is, - the first medical treatment given to an injured person before medical help arrives. He emphasized on the importance of this, how that if applied well, it could be the difference between life and death. At this point, we could see that this was important. He then majored on CPR, what was necessary before a person is given CPR.
Next we moved to the practical session- processes involved in administering CPR to a victim who has suffered impact. I’ll pass along as much as I learnt.

How do you administer CPR to an accident victim!

• The first thing you do as a first responder is to call for help. You obviously can’t do this alone.

The essence of asking for help is that while you’re trying to administer CPR and give this person precious minutes that matter, you need someone calling an ambulance or a vehicle,etc.
Note: it’s important you tell the helpers your specific need as not everyone will know this.

• Next, Move them to a safe environment.

Remember I said you can’t do this alone right? You’ll need help. It’s also very important how you move them, gently making sure that the head isn’t lolling or rolling and the body isn't being moved in a violent manner.

One major reason for this is for the safety of the person administering the first aid. There have been stories of people getting hurt by vehicles or other harmful things while trying to save another person. Both lives matter.

• After this, you need to check for ABC

• airways for breathe
• Breathing across the nostril then
• carotid pulse

Note that not every victim should be administered CPR. There are people who are conscious, and still breathing. They don’t need it, CPR is for extreme cases when the victim isn't breathing, this is why it’s important to check both the breathing through the nostrils or listen to the heart beat and also check the carotid pulse.

A participant practicing.

It’s only when both the breathing has stopped and there’s no pulse that you administer CPR.

Practical steps

Place your left hand first over the lower part of the chest right under the nipple line, place your right hand over it and form a knot of sorts, then with your arms in a straight line, start compressing..

A participant performing CPR.

The aim is to have 30 compressions in 1 set- this means compress 30 times at a go, check for breathing and go again If there’s no sign of breathing.
Also have a respirator with you to administer air after the first 30 compresssion. A respirator is essentially an airbag. If there’s no air bag, you can do mouth to mouth.

At this point, we retook the quiz I spoke about earlier and 95% of us got correct answers. Knowledge truly is amazing. The president came up, thanked everyone for coming and brought refreshments. It had begun raining heavily shortly after we started, so We had servings of hot bittersweet Arabian tea.