Exercise Tharsuinn

Report by Gabi, Lawrence and Vassilios

On 5 March seven students from the First Aid Service participated in a British Red Cross First Aid exercise at Carbisdale Castle in the North of Scotland. Four of the students, Vassilios A, Lawrence L, Ning L, and Lizzie J, and the service leader, Mr Fair, acted as casualties based 1200 ft up Ben Tharsuinn located in Easter Ross. They were acting as a group of people participating in an adventure race who had become lost and hypothermic. They were given first aid assistance and evacuated by an emergency response team.

Three other students, Taylor N, Gabi P and Poppy R, were part of an emergency response team that travelled to Nigg Hill, near Tain, in response to an incident in which eight school students and their teacher had fallen into old war bunkers on the edge of the hill. There were two walking wounded, three had fractures to legs, one required CPR, one was a spinal injury, one hypothermic and the teacher was unharmed.

We all felt as though we had learnt a lot more about emergency response in real situations which we are unable to imitate in school. The students who acted as casualties found a better understanding of how real casualties feel and how they should be treated. Those who were part of the emergency response team were able to use the skills they’d acquired since joining the First Aid service in September. We were able to see first hand what the British Red Cross is all about and felt that we were very lucky to have such a great opportunity to participate in this event.