And the first night I am left alone, all hell brakes loose and a small riot erupts in the bar.
I just turned around one moment and noticed two people viciously kicking in the head of another fellow who was on the ground. Everyone else took that as a cue to start kicking each other. I immediately jumped the bar (The two bad people ran off) and dragged the bleeding and unconscious young man inside the bar area. I then had to leave him there for a minute as more bad people were jumping the bar and grabbing bottles, so I grabbed the Galliano bottle and chased them away (it is not called the head basher for nothing). Back to the bleeding man. I am surprised he was not dead, the beating he took to the head was nasty. As far as I could tell, all that was broken was his nose, his face was badly cut and he was bleeding heavily, however not hemorrhaging. I was afraid to move him any more, I did not know if he had a broken neck or not, but I also vaguely recalled something about injured people suffocating if not put on their backs, so I carefully flipped him over. I then called the police and an ambulance, but it took them a while to arrive and the guys girlfriend had awoken him and forced him to leave before the doctors could look at him. I think he was an idiot, but maybe I should not take this as a permanent black mark against his intelligence, seeing as he was just kicked in the head until unconscious and all.
So, did I do the right thing? What should I have done? What should I have checked for? Broken bones? Lacerations? Medic-alert bracelet? Should I have just left him where I found him and not allowed anyone to touch him until the ambulance arrived?
You should probably have put him into the recovery position and checked his breathing, pulse, airway etc. Once satisfied he is not going to die, call ambulance.
If his girl friend wants to take him away, then that’s fine, maybe stupid, but nothing you can do about it.
Moving someone when they are badly injured can cause further harm if; if the person has spinal injuries or broken ribs for example, however, it is sometimes necessary to move someone out of danger.
Next step: sign up for a CPR/First Aid course. It’ll come in handy next time (hopefully there won’t be a next time, but stilll…) IIRC, most work places need to have a certain % of people trained in basic first aid - talk to your boss and see if there is a workplace-offered course coming up soon, or if they might help pay for you to get trained somewhere else. Even if they won’t cover the cost, its still a good thing to learn. My First Aid recently expired, but it was provided to me for free (Actually, better - I was PAID to take it!) by my employer at the time, and although I haven’t had to use it, it’s good to know that I have it (though I need recertification…)
You did good, kid. Coming upon a person unconscious, you assessed the scene as unsafe as moved your man to safety. Check: Airway open? Breathing? Circulation? (pulse) Yes to all three, put him in recovery position-------head injured people are prone to vomit and you don’t want his airway blocked with that. Unless you are able to deal with broken bones or lacerations, leave those to the pros. Put pressure on a wound bleeding in spurts but he’s not going to bleed out from skinned knuckles, so leave the minor things be. You may have saved his life by getting bad people to cease kicking him in the head and it’s a good sign he was able to wake up, but that guy needs a girlfriend who denies him medical care like he needs another kick to the head. You, on the other hand, did good.
If you didn’t any time you are forced to move a seriously injured person who has not been properly immobilized drag them by hooking your arms under victims armpits from behind, you can hook your hands together across their chest if it helps and drag them that way.
If person is too big/heavy to manage that way try and find a belt or a couple belts to improvise a strap, slide it under their chest at armpit level and then grab by the belt to drag.
Always avoid dragging someone from the side/sideways if at all possible. That will put the most uneven or problematic load on injured areas if they exist.
Moving injured people is serious business and under the circumstances you describe you did ok. In my experience as an EMT and later as a bouncer/security type, I would have worked more at dispersing the fight, too many variables based on your situation so I lean towards you did good. Yes he might get stepped on or bumped around a little but probably nothing worse than being purposefully kicked to the head. People laying on the ground are wonderfully immobilized, the ground isn’t going anywhere and won’t hurt him more.
Facial injuries look worse than they often are and tend to bleed more (your face has LOTS of small blood vessels). If they guy got up and walked out on his own, you really can’t stop him. Most likely he wanted to avoid contacting the police for some reason like:
Fight involved aquaintances who he didn’t want to get arrested or wanted to “handle on his own” later.
Victim may have had outstanding warrants.
Girlfriend wanted to transport him to hospital herself without waiting for EMS.
If hes walking away under his own steam, hes probably ok to ride to the hospital by car w/a friend. Ambulances are better assigned to people who cannot be moved by normal means or require intervention that paramedics can deliver.
Or if you’re really feeling motivated and its a rowdy place, sign for an EMT class. Its pretty much heavy duty first aid but you will be taught how to do things like move injured people and evaluate severity and nature of injuries. Its not a tough program and can be taken around most schedules. In my area its tue/thur nights for 4 hrs or saturdays for 8 for 13 weeks plus 40 hours of observation time. Once you come out you will have tons of practical knowhow on helping handle medical emergencies of any kind.
Personally I think they should put everyone through EMT classes in high school but thats just me.
