February 12, 2020
Announcements
Pres. Russ: The World Understanding and Peace Dinner is just around the corner on Thursday, Feb 20. The speaker topic will be immigration ... We've received The Rotary Foundation award for 100% participation ... We have a thank you note from Chelsea at Friends Forever for our gift. She'll be pleased to return and bring us up to date on their activities.
Steve: Suggested we change the name of the club, dropping "Durham". John suggested that leaving out a town name would make it difficult to find us on Club Finder. Ric remembered (with a little help) that during his time in office we changed our name from "Dover-Durham". (Ed. Currently, there is only one club left in the district which has a town-less name: River Valley - it's in Rumford; the former Casco Bay Sunrise is now Portland Sunrise. There are a few clubs which refer to a geographical feature but still include a town's name, e.g. Saco Bay Sunset or Bridgton-Lake Region. Most are just named after the principal town in their jurisdiction.)
Phil: The Big Bean has indicated that they would be open to installing a screen for our computer projection talks.
Bill: Endowment fund is at $73K.
Program
Phil introduced our speaker, Rob Lyons, EMT. He spoke about stopping bleeding, demonstrated with several items and then had us practice using them. Blood from an artery pulsates and is pink; from a vein, it's darker. If there is bleeding from an extremity, a tourniquet is what you want. He showed us one, called a "Cat 7" which has a loop already established and which merely needs to be slipped over the clothing, positioned high and pulled tight. Once it's in place, a "windlass" attached to the band can be turned to further tighten it until the bleeding stops, and, once tight, can be secured. Once tight, don't loosen before medics arrive.
The Cat 7 is available commercially from North American Rescue for $22 - $30. Consider tossing one in your car because you could be the first one on the scene when it's needed.
Wounds to the torso are something else. Here direct pressure is needed. Using gauze pads, press down on the wound, then use an "Israeli Bandage" to tightly wrap it. The bandage has a device built in to help secure the succeeding layers. An open wound at the junction of the torso and a limb requires that the pads be pushed into the wound using alternating thumb pressure.
A member asked about the Good Samaritan Law. If you stop to assist in NH, you need to ask if the victim consents to your assistance - unless they're unresponsive in which case their consent is considered implied. You are limited to actions which would be considered reasonable given the circumstances. So stopping the bleeding is in, brain surgery not.
MacGregor Ambulance offers a 1 1/2 hour course at no charge to local businesses. MacGregor is also working to install in every classroom in the Oyster River School District a kit which includes a Cat 7, an Israeli Bandage, and pads. They estimate the cost to be $35 per copy. They welcome partners in this community project.
Ed. Ric
