BSAC London No.1 Branch

Ivan Petrovch Pavlov was a Russian scientist who brought the world the science of conditioned reflexes. He experimented with dogs, studying the relationship between salivation and digestion. By applying stimuli to the animals using a bell, he was able to make the animals salivate whether they were in the presence of food or not.

From Wikipedia:
“The phrase “Pavlov’s dog” is often used to describe someone who merely reacts to a situation rather than use critical thinking”.

The trip to the Red Sea was fantastic: good diving, excellent weather, excellent food, good atmosphere… as far as I am concerned, it was a success.

The introduction above about the Russian scientist comes from the common practice by live aboard guides and crew, to signal their customers that it is time to dive or time to eat. They do so by ringing a bell. The same kind as last order bells used in pubs. I can tell you that Pavlov was right, as after only a couple of days the bell absolutely took over my behaviour and dictated my life. For the rest of the trip it was either time for diving or time for eating.

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On Wednesday 21st November we were lucky enough to receive a First Aid training course from the London Ambulance Service. Norman, our trainer, has been an Ambulance Technician in South London for over ten years and passed a wealth of practical knowledge on to us during the two hour session. The course was well attended with fourteen London Branch members attending.

The London Ambulance Service (LAS) and British Heart Foundation have been campaigning to improve Basic Life Support (BLS) skills in London. This has proven to be a success with the survival rate from heart attack improving from less than 10% to over 15% in the last couple of years. This is a remarkably low percentage of the 10,000 or so cardiac arrests that LAS receive calls for per year but shows how much the campaign can achieve in a short space of time.

I’ll use the rest of the article to talk about some of the skills we learned on the course. Of course my waffling is no substitute for a real First Aid course so if you don’t understand anything here you may want to have a word with our Training Officer!

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