Survival techniques and immediate first aid actions
What this domain tests
Survival at sea follows a fixed order of priorities, and immediate first aid in a craft is limited but decisive. The exam wants that priority order, the water rules and the first actions for hypothermia and drowning.
Priorities
- Protection: get out of wind and water, close the canopy, keep dry, insulate, treat injuries.
- Location: keep a lookout, use torch, flares, SART, mirror and radio as instructed.
- Water: no seawater, no urine, no alcohol. Do not drink in the first 24 hours unless injured; then ration about 0.5 litre per person per day.
- Food: do not eat in the first 24 hours; ration later.
Immediate first aid
- Hypothermia: handle gently and horizontally, cut off wet clothing, insulate including the head, warm slowly, no rubbing, no alcohol, no hot drinks to a drowsy casualty.
- Drowning: the problem is lack of oxygen. Give five rescue breaths, then CPR at 30 compressions to 2 breaths; continue until help or recovery. Do not give up quickly in cold water.
- Bleeding: direct pressure. Burns: cool with clean water, cover. Fractures: immobilise.
- Seasickness tablets help the team work; take them early.
Worked example
A survivor is pulled aboard confused, no longer shivering, with a cold abdomen. You treat this as severe hypothermia: keep them horizontal, cut off wet clothes, wrap in a TPA and blankets with the head covered, check breathing and do not give a drink. Rough handling or a hot bath could trigger cardiac arrest.
Traps
- Drinking seawater or alcohol.
- Warming the limbs before the core.
- Letting a hypothermic casualty walk 'to warm up'.
- Giving food or drink to an unconscious person.
- Delaying rescue breaths in a drowning casualty.