REGINA - For the past few years, Colin Frey has taught first aid training at the Prairie Sky School in Regina as their outdoor coordinator.
He spoke about how the opportunity to teach first-aid training at the school came to be. "I worked with Sask Outdoors because I'm also a Paddle Canada instructor, and so usually once a year, maybe twice, I'll teach a canoeing course, and then I would teach a remote or wilderness first aid course, so they just sort of… advertise and they sort of promote it, and then they take the registrations for it, so it's sort of become a standing thing once or twice a year that I'll do these courses for them. And then, as I said, [there is] the collaboration with Prairie Sky, the school, for the last three or four years [as] I've been their outdoor coordinator."
Frey teaches an occupational health and safety course under the J & T First Aid Consulting, which is an authorized provider of the Canadian Red Cross.
There are multiple different first aid training that people can learn. Frey explained, "[the] urban first aid has all the bleeding and the CPR and the AED, but then we just sort of incorporate more of long-term care. There are some special skills that you do get in the remote [first aid training], and especially in the wilderness [first aid training].
The course was conducted outside around the beginning of the winter season here in Regina. Frey noted the importance of understanding how to adapt to the weather you are facing in a medical emergency. In the event someone is injured, Frey said to wrap "them [the injured person] up in tarps or those silver blankets or putting a couple sticks up just sort of as a barrier [so] that we can put a tarp around them."
Frey stresses to those he is teaching to understand a person who is injured or sick will feel the effects of the environment more than a normal person would.
When asked if he feels people overlook that factor, Frey said it often comes down to stress or a situation as the reason for this to happen. "Most people are not used to dealing with a serious first aid situation. So there's the stress of that situation [and] so [what happens is] that they can become really focused on the injury or the illness or whatever. And then just, yeah, maybe [they are] not being used to being outside a lot and for that period of time."
As Frey alluded to before, part of the training he teaches in the courses is long-term care. There can be situations where people have to wait potentially from 30 minutes to multiple days for help to arrive.
He’s heard stories from others who waited a couple days for medical care. "One was due to lack of communication, and the other one was just it was getting to nightfall. It had to be a helicopter evacuation based on where they were. So the nearest helicopter or the helicopters that were available could not fly by instruments."
Hypothetically, if a person had to wait a couple of days for help, Frey mentioned the most important thing to do is to keep the sick or injured person not too cold or too hot. The next step is evaluating what the injury or sickness is, seeing if there is anything you can give the person to help reduce the pain or injury.
Most people would consider giving the person water, but Frey said it can depend on their situation. It’s up to the person taking care of them to evaluate the situation, "by having them drink some water. Is it going to help them, or is it going to hurt them? Can they drink without choking on it? You know, so basically, you just do what you can do."
By having first aid training, Frey said, it won't turn you into a doctor or surgeon. He emphasized, "don't do something that you're not trained to do, you know, just because you maybe read it in a book [or] saw it somewhere else [like in a movie or TV show.]
Even though a person cannot provide instant medical care, there are ways that people acn help a sick or injured person before EMS arrives. If there is a scenario where someone is bleeding, Frey tells people in the course, "[a] gloved hand is your best, you know [option to stop the bleeding]. If you can get on there and just put pressure on [the cut or wound] with your hand, [more specifically] with a gloved hand [so you have] that proper PPE protection, you know, that'll slow the bleeding down."
Frey also carries a webbed belt around with him at all times because in case he needs to stop the bleeding of a large cut, he has an object he can use for it.
Because of his teachings, people who have learned first aid training from Frey have received the Red Cross Rescuer Award. The award is given to those who go out of their way to save a life and are not associated with the EMS.
Hearing he’s helped save lives from his teachings makes Frey know. "I did my job right." He added, "yeah, it is very gratifying and very satisfying knowing that I had a little bit to do with someone's life being saved."
As for when the next first aid training courses will take place, Frey is not sure about an exact date. He did mention it would likely take place in April. In terms of the hours of each course, they can vary. The urban first aid course lasts 16 hours, the remote first aid course lasts 20 hours and takes place over 3 days, while the wilderness first aid course lasts 5 days.
