: Karen Cay

When Injury or Illness Strikes – Call for Paramedics First

Feb 26, 2019 | 8:35 AM

When sudden injury or illness occurs, paramedics should be your first call for help.

While we certainly may want other family members to know that someone they love is hurt or ill, delaying the call for help by calling them first is just that a delay.

The paramedics can provide life saving care to help someone breath better, to get a heart beating in a more organized fashion or relieve pain from injury.

Prince Albert, like thousands of other communities, is not immune to the problems of substance abuse.

Whether that is medication taken to harm one’s self, taken in abuse to get “high” or mistakenly taken, paramedics will always do their best to treat the symptoms presented.

No paramedic in Canada has the specialized tools that exist in Canada to analyze someone’s blood. If, say this person took substance Y, then as a paramedic take out antidote X and give that to the ill person.

What paramedics do, and do very well is treat the symptoms presented to us.

If the person is not awake due to a possible narcotic ingestion, which often slows or stops breathing, paramedics have medication to get that person breathing again.

Paramedics also have the ability to insert a breathing tube to breathe for that person.

If someone has a very slow heart rate or extremely fast rate, paramedics have several ways to help that person.

Unfortunately, as paramedics, when faced with the unknown situation of no one knows what has been ingested, the definitive diagnosis is made in the hospital by the medical teams who have access to complex lab analyzation equipment.

Taking medication that doesn’t belong to you or has not been prescribed by a physician for a specific purpose should not be done.

It is a dangerous practice!

Even simple things like saying to a friend or co-worker, you have a headache and they say sure my doctor has me taking this. You think it’s pretty harmless, but without knowing your friend’s medical history for such things like an allergy you might be causing more harm than good by taking that friends medication.

What if that person suffers an allergic reaction or the medication reacts differently for them than you and they get really sick. Medications are provided by a physician for a specific purpose, in a specific quantity, dose and just for you.

Please don’t share something with someone else. Always read the label, even a simple medication like Tylenol, that we can buy in many stores, has risks. Let’s say you have a headache and the label on the bottle said take 1-2 tablets every 6 hours. But for you that does not help the headache so you take 4 tablets and sleep for 12 hours. The headache might be gone but that is not safe use of medication.

As parents, we are all concerned about our child’s welfare.

As citizen’s of this great City we should be concerned about the well being of others too. If you see something in the community that suggests illegal drug activity call police. If you find substances at home that you don’t know what they are, ask your family members. If you need advice on proper medication use or is something is right for you ask your physician. Your pharmacist is also a great medication resource. The pharmacist can ensure that regular over the counter medications or even herbal substances don’t react with prescribed medications. The pharmacist can also help you to understand what you are prescribed, why and how to use it correctly.

In Saskatchewan you also can use the Health Help Line at 8-1-1 or for information about possible overdose symptoms call Poison Control at 1-866-454-1212.

In an emergency where you can not wake someone up, they are not breathing or their heart may not be beating don’t call a help line call 9-1-1 immediately.

Paramedics are your important first call in those types of situations. But if the person is awake, talking and you need additional information help lines and other community resources are a great choice. The more we ask questions, stay informed and work as a community, the healthier we will all be. Stay safe!

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