From bandages to the bends

Dealing with multiple casualties that have a range of traumas is difficult for any medical person. If you take into account that I’m still a student, and then take away the comfort of being in a teaching hospital resuscitation room with equipment and specialist support, and the situation looks even worse. Luckily, this was an exercise, and I was observing. For the 50 or more doctors participating the pressure was on though. The Great North Air Ambulance was about to land to pick up the “injured.”

This exercise is the final part of the expedition and wilderness medicine course, which is run three times a year in Keswick, Cumbria, or at Plas-y-Brenin, Conwy. It helps prepare doctors, nurses, and paramedics for being part of an expedition team. I was fortunate enough to attend the course as the first medical student intern, a new programme that allows medical students to join