All in a week’s work

 Not as busy as usual this week as the flu vaccinations come to a more steady flow, which gives me time to do many things that  I have had to  abandon  because of the constant flow of patients.

 There was an interesting case this week.  One patient arrived at the surgery with copious bleeding from his leg. The poor person had lost about a litre of blood from a bleeding varicosity. This situation was new to me, never having seen such spurting of blood from a vein rather than an artery. I knew that I had to stem the flow but it was an enigma to me as to why it was happening!

 After calling for the doctor (well , shouting for the doctor!) we managed to bandage the ankle with an assorted array of  bandages and some  cotton wool ( plastering) bandage..and soon he was being whisked away by ambulance  to the Emergency department at the hospital.  

 This got me thinking that I had no first aid kit on hand....a very basic set up of combines, bandages, gloves and adhesive tape would have been  invaluable. We do have all these items, but not to hand.

So my next project is to have a kit ready for all sorts  of emergencies. A plastic sheet would be a good start -a litre of blood is no picnic to clean up!

And I researched bleeding varicosities. I discovered that something as benign as a  bleeding varicose vein  can be fatal if the blood flow is not stopped.

 This is an excerpt from Patient.co.uk that explains the treatment.

First aid for bleeding varicose veins: this happens only rarely, but if a varicose vein does bleed, then you need to stop the bleeding quickly by doing the following:

• Elevate the leg - lie down flat and raise the leg high, so that it is well above the rest of the body (eg rest it on a chair, use lots of pillows or someone can hold the leg high).
• Pressure - put a clean cloth or dressing onto the bleeding area and put firm pressure on it, for at least 10 minutes.
• Call an ambulance if the bleeding is heavy, or does not quickly stop. See a doctor urgently, as you may need treatment to prevent the bleeding from happening again.

So, as well as getting my first aid kit together I have learnt how to manage this situation... looks like I’ll be putting a first aid course onto my learning plan in the near future.