This could save your life.

[Horse]

Borrowed from LinkedIn


This could save your life.

Really, it could.

"Save your life"? That's a dramatic claim. Is it justified? Yes, it is. And if not your life, someone from your family, or friends, or 'just' someone you encounter.

- Do you know where you are?

Install the 'What 3 Words' and 'OS Locate' apps on your phone.

- Can you be found?

Ensure your house number or name is clear.

At night, switch on lights (inside and outside), open curtains, to make it obvious which property.

Expect someone to knock at your door, be ready for their arrival.

If it's really urgent (eg if you're giving CPR), unlock and open a door.

- If regular medications are taken, have an up to date list available.

- If there is a complicated medical history, have a list of key points and treatment.

For medical and medications, prepare a sheet. Meds one side, history the other. Consider a 'mind map' format for the history - easy to review. Have copy in your wallet or handbag. Another copy with meds.

- If there are 'Respect' or DNR documents, have them available.

- For those living on their own, get them a 'Message in a bottle'.

- For those on their own, consider fall alert and emergency call button systems.

- For home, have aspirin to hand, a 999 call handler may suggest it if a heart attack is possible. Chew the tablets, not swallow.

- Think about preparing a 'go bag', with essentials such as a phone charger. Add a dressing gown, slippers, toothbrush, etc. If travelling with the patient, take water, snacks, money, pullover/coat, etc.

And, of course, there are a couple of other things!

- First aid training
At the very least, learn CPR. It's easy. If you can open someone's airway, control major bleeding, and give effective CPR, you can do a lot to keep someone alive until trained help arrives.

- Learn about AEDs - automated defibrillators. They're really easy to use.

- Show your children how to call 999.



First aid, CPR, defibs, they're not just for work or home, you might need those skills anywhere, at any time.

[Horse]

[gremlin]

I've been a nosy, smug, know-it-all first aider for years. The recovery position is one of the simplest but most important things you can learn.
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/first-aid ... -position/

[Horse]

It's not unknown for people to die in car crashes, simply from being unconscious and being unable to breathe. Could have survived if someone had tilted their head.

[Cousin Jack]

Useful info.

One of 'my' local schools runs a 'mini medics' course for kids. It helped when one kid collapsed with a heart attack, the other kids started CPR, fetched the defib, and did all they right stuff before any staff reached him. He survived.

[Horse]

One of 'my' local schools runs a 'mini medics' course for kids. It helped when one kid collapsed with a heart attack, the other kids started CPR, fetched the defib, and did all they right stuff before any staff reached him. He survived.

That's fantastic!

I've done training sessions for kids, they're really enthusiastic to learn.

Although the really little ones didn't have enough weight to compress 'Annie'

[Noggin]

Useful info.

One of 'my' local schools runs a 'mini medics' course for kids. It helped when one kid collapsed with a heart attack, the other kids started CPR, fetched the defib, and did all they right stuff before any staff reached him. He survived.

Totally fab

I think people forget how good kids are at learning things and remembering what to do. It's so important to get the basics to them early. Ad TBF, some of them are bossy little shits - if you tell them in training they don't have the weight to do the compressions, I'm pretty darned sure they will set things up and 'instruct' the nearest big enough person to do the compressions

Kids rock

[Pirahna]

Install the 'What 3 Words' and 'OS Locate' apps on your phone.

What3Words is potentially a bit flakey and not to be relied on in critical situations. OS Locate gives your grid reference anywhere in the World, but then so does Google Maps.

[Horse]

Install the 'What 3 Words' and 'OS Locate' apps on your phone.

What3Words is potentially a bit flakey and not to be relied on in critical situations. OS Locate gives your grid reference anywhere in the World, but then so does Google Maps.

To be honest, I don't know how to get an OS grid location from Google Maps. Just had a quick look - nothing obvious. 'Share location ' seems to want to inform a particular person. Tapping on the pin and scrolling gives a 'short' location option.

But the only thing OS Locate does is give a grid reference.

[KungFooBob]

Install the 'What 3 Words' and 'OS Locate' apps on your phone.

What3Words is potentially a bit flakey and not to be relied on in critical situations. OS Locate gives your grid reference anywhere in the World, but then so does Google Maps.

To be honest, I don't know how to get an OS grid location from Google Maps. Just had a quick look - nothing obvious. 'Share location ' seems to want to inform a particular person. Tapping on the pin and scrolling gives a 'short' location option.

But the only thing OS Locate does is give a grid reference.

Rather than click on your blue dot location, drop a pin nearby and it's on there.

[Pirahna]

To be honest, I don't know how to get an OS grid location from Google Maps. Just had a quick look - nothing obvious. 'Share location ' seems to want to inform a particular person. Tapping on the pin and scrolling gives a 'short' location option.

You see the blue dot that gives your location, tap the map next to it and you get a red pin, the red pin will have your latitude and longitude.

Edit: beaten by KFB.

[Horse]

Probably still slower, tap tap scroll, rather than one tap. But worth knowing

OS Maps is free for basic mapping, shows footpaths etc not on Google.


AAMI How is, or how often is, W3W flaky?

[Horse]

https://www.defibfinder.uk/

Defib finder

[Mussels]

Probably still slower, tap tap scroll, rather than one tap. But worth knowing

OS Maps is free for basic mapping, shows footpaths etc not on Google.


AAMI How is, or how often is, W3W flaky?

It can be easy for words to be misheard, there are some very similar sounding combinations within a few miles of each other.

[MrLongbeard]

Probably still slower, tap tap scroll, rather than one tap. But worth knowing

OS Maps is free for basic mapping, shows footpaths etc not on Google.


AAMI How is, or how often is, W3W flaky?

It can be easy for words to be misheard, there are some very similar sounding combinations within a few miles of each other.

W3W can also show lat, long or OS coordinates alongside the words.

[cheb]

W3W does have the advantage of being very simple to understand. Lat and long is fine if you understand them but possibly hard to learn while stressed.

[Pirahna]

AAMI How is, or how often is, W3W flaky?

Stolen from a Reddit post:

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57156797 Mountain Rescue England and Wales (MREW) encountered no less than 45 false locations during a 12 month trial.
73% of W3W contain a word that can be changed by adding or removing a single letter.

https://keswickmrt.org.uk/rescue/base-brown-9/ Rescue of a hiker with a broken ankle that went hours over because the W3W location was mis-transcribed - the location was later found and confirmed by conventional grid reference.

https://cybergibbons.com/security-2/why ... lications/ A solid mathematical take-down of the concept/implementation of W3W.

[MrLongbeard]

W3W does have the advantage of being very simple to understand. Lat and long is fine if you understand them but possibly hard to learn while stressed.

Do you need to learn them, if you're up poop creek all you need to do is read of a sting of numbers....OK so you maybe need a very basic understanding that those numbers relate to your position but that's it

[cheb]

I worded that badly. If you visit one site that provides the info you need with minimal clicks it's easier than having to go through options. I'm not being a W3W fanboi, it's just a very simple tool.

The BBC article raises questions too. 45 mistakes in 12 months. Out of how many callouts? And how does that 45 compare to previous years or to other location systems? One number alone is not enough to form a judgement. Is it the least bad option overall?

[MrLongbeard]

I worded that badly. If you visit one site that provides the info you need with minimal clicks it's easier than having to go through options. I'm not being a W3W fanboi, it's just a very simple tool.

W3W does give lat & long, maybe that's how I set it up years ago but they pop up with the 3 words automatically for me.
Last time I used it must have been 2 or 3 years ago.