Outdoor First Aid – Casualty Card

Thinking back over the years about the various incidents that I have dealt with on the hill or at the crag and thinking about how many first aid courses I have had to sit through, I realise that strikingly there is one lesson rarely taught well: the importance of the casualty card.

A casualty card is essentially a record of what has happened and when, to whom. Further, it is a record of how the vital signs (pulse, breathing rate, colour, temperature and alertness) are changing with time. It could just be a piece of note-paper or, for me a pre-printed form on waterproof paper.

There are four good reasons why you should carry and use one of these …

1. As a medical record
   

   You are potentially the first on the scene. Hence you are best placed to record what has happened. For me on that day in the Peak District my casualty was conscious – it might have been the case that by the time the medics turned up he’d lose consciousness. Hence I was well placed to record how he felt, where the pain was, who his next of kin were, if he was on medication and so much more … All potentially useful information for people further down the line.

2. It can inform your decisions
   

   One aspect of using the casualty card is that you use it to monitor and record the casualty’s vital signs: pulse, breathing, colour, temperature, and state of alertness. In turn it keeps you focused on how the casualty’s condition may be changing. That day at Millstone Edge with my fallen climber I waited 20 minutes before the professionals turned up. By monitoring his vital signs I was able to reap information – in particular I was looking for signs of shock and thinking about what I could do if he went into shock.

3. It is of use for the medics who take over
   

   Recording the vital signs and recording them every five minutes meant that when the medics arrived they had an idea of how this casualty was doing. Four sets of readings gave them a trend and a base line which in turn could help with their decisions.

4. It can massively reassure the casualty you know what you are doing
   

   And this is the best reason, in my experience for using a casualty card – it makes you, a humble first aider, look incredibly professional and this is hugely reassuring to the casualty and to anyone with them. On that day last August, with the aid of my casualty card it gave me something to do and helped me achieve my aim of reassuring my casualty and his mate that they would both be ok.

So why wouldn’t you?

It costs practically nothing, it weighs practically nothing but this one piece of first aid kit is enormously beneficial. So if you don’t already carry one in your first aid kit – now’s the time to get online and to print a few off. As for my casualty that day in the Peak District – he was flown out by air ambulance. For the little I had done, he and his mate were incredibly grateful and I was just so happy that I’d been equipped to help as best as I could.

Print off your own casualty card from here.