Gaza Protest Pictures (10/01/2009) pt 4

hi i love your pictures,but i got burnt at around 4.30-5PM.outside the embassy.i went to police they said the orgernizers hadn't got one,i had to walk down to the big screen,they said get to the out skirts and call one i said i had no phone or money,so they said go down to the end and ask another police,i did it took an hour to come,the police didn't let me sit in there van so i got far to cold,the burn is very bad,and im at burns unit 2 hours train every day,on dhss!!and got bronchitis,think if i had got hospital faster wouldn't be as bad.deff do it all again for the peoples being maimed,but we must have our own one or we are at the peral of the police ones,a lady had hyperemia at hyed park the police med had her we tried to give her hot tea and they wouldn't let us,so there just not as concerning or nice,i hope shes ok been thinking of her all the time,keep up the pics love it,bless,x

There should have been Street Medics on the demo, there probably were but you wouldn't have known. The way to contact a street medic should be to contact the nearest steward but in my experience the STWC don't inform their stewards about this and don't provide medics 'because they are peaceful'.

If there weren't any street medics on the demo then you should consider becoming one yourself. You can learn from workshops from existing street medics or you can just attend free first aid courses provided by organistations like the Red Cross or St Johns and do a bit of research. The benefit of learning from street medics is that they will teach you how to deal with injuries caused by CS gas and pepper spray.

I forgot the link, sorry.

 http://medic.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
Especially
 http://medic.wikia.com/wiki/OC_trials#Brave.3F_Crazy.3F_Black_Cross.27_Pepper_Spray_Trials

I hope some of you read these because we need more medics and stupid treatment of injuries only harms people and disrupts protests.

Really sorry to hear you had problems findind an Ambulance Minty, and I'm surprised the stewards were so slack about this, because quite frankly by them not knowing what to do, they're not really doing their job.

The Ambulances I snapped were about half a mile or more up the road from the Embassy, a very long way from the main action and behind the police reargaurd, so you had no chance of seeing them!

I recently joined a student society and got some basic First Aid training from St.Johns, and I'd recommend loads of people do it (their courses are quite cheap too), so that when/if someone does get injured at a public event there's more likely to be an activist around with a bit of knowledge to at least shore them up until an Ambulance gets there, or until they can be got to one.

 http://www.sja.org.uk/sja/training-courses.aspx

But of course, as was hinted at by someone else, bad treatment of a wound can do harm too, so you should only ever offer help if you're absolutely sure you know what to do, hence why a bit of training wouldn't go amiss.
;-)

I should emphasise that if someone has a more extreme injury, like damage to their head or neck, you should NOT try to move them, and if need be get loads of people to surround and gaurd/supervise them until professional help can get there. There are ways to move someone with these injuries, but this shouldn't be attempted by people who haven't had training in how to do it (St.Johns can show you).

As for burns, the best and most effective way to treat them 'in the field' is to try and keep them cool - even some cold/cool bottled water poured onto the area can help, but again if it's an open wound it's best to avoid doing even this, as it could result in further tissue damage, depending the type of liquid to hand - ONLY USE WATER.

For the first few minutes after a burn injury is sustained it should be left uncovered (to allow it to cool down), and until professional help can get to that person, because again, by covering this type of wound, this too can cause further tissue damage when the dressing is removed later.
However, it's Horses for Courses. If you're in an environment where an open wound may get infected, you may have to consider covering it to prevent this AFTER it's cooled down, but this should be seen as a temporary measure until finding professional medical help.

I'm no expert, so if I got any of that wrong, please correct me.

This hopefully won't apply to activists in the UK, but maybe UK activists in Palestine should know that water only makes WP wounds worse. Going by army rumour-mill sources the best thing you can do for a WP burn is to scrape out the WP with a knife, however painful and damaging that is.

I have to say this since the UN relief and works agency were hit by WP shells today and the firemen tried to douse the flames with water which made the fire worse.

hi,thanks for all the good advice,there wasn't a stuard in site,and if they were,they couldn't have got ambulance in any quicker.,the organizers wouldn't pay for imbalances,those ones were not for march,as ambulance men tolled me,they came from the hospital to get me,and the organizers refused to pay for one,i have alot of med training but i had to be in the riot to warn people of tack ticks,as been on marches all my life and these people have no ider what persecution is to now follow them,i am getting between 12 to 16 year old youth and the police,etc,,ie last sat the info leaflets on arest(leagle addvice)were not given out till people were trapped!!!!then the organizers handed me the leaflets and said o minty give these out,joke,they should have given them out all day,and given advice on small things ie as your marching dont let a gap form as the police will get in it and cordon yous in to small trapped groups.i am angry with the organizers as i have been trying to talk to them for weeks on this issue.yesterday a 14year old gal was arrested on the march,my network filmed it,i got striate on to the organizers to get her leagle help etc,,do you think there communicating back.no way,so the organizers refused to pay for ambulance on the 10th with an estimated 100 0000 people coming and police brutality predicted,i called them on the 11th and offerd to do gigs to get money to pay for one every week,do you think they got back in touch,they go around with there buckets,..wen we were doing Wadsworth campaign,George mongio etc got thousands donated to the campaign,do you think wee could get a penny,we had to build a camp no wood no bedding etc,we asked for 200 pound so we could buy a van and go tating to build the site in to a proper camp,no way,then we found the pollution levels for the site!! they were really bad George and hes crony's came down for a meeting,they said we will come and test the ground for pollution,i stood up and said test us were ill,he ignored me so then john pendragon and others said yes test us,and George i dare you to spend one day here!!!!he declined ,we were on that site for 2 years,helping the land is ours,joke,im going to put our seen striate,as wee can mone about anyone till we put our own house in order,cos if there is a revolution,i don't want them ether!!!bless all,keep believing but see more,xxx