Calling Any First Aiders

[FirstAid101]

What would you do in this situation?

You work in a school and a 14 year old student comes to you and says that they have eaten a couple of sweets that another student has given them and they now feel faint, sick, racing heart and just generally unwell. Student has no known allergies.

The sweets were bought off of instagram and came in plain packaging (a sandwich bag), so the worry was that they may have been laced with spice/MDMA etc (this has previously happened to another student a few years ago and they became very unwell at school).

Would calling an ambulance for them be an appropriate response? Or would you just call their parents to come and collect them?

TIA

What are their obs like? If the have the symptoms as described then yes, they need checking out if you have reason to believe they have ingested something like that.

Yes call 999 and parents. Log as Safeguarding incident.

Yes. 999 school child has potentially unwittingly ingested edibles.

Not sure if the legal ramifications regarding distinction of edibles in a school.

Was this your DC and no ambulance/ parent called?

Sorry for posting and running.

Thanks all.

My friend and colleague was one of the first aiders who called the ambulance. I met up with her yesterday (I wasn’t in on the day of the incident as was unwell) and she told me that our line manager’s manager said she shouldn’t have called an ambulance and overreacted which has knocked her confidence.

My friend/colleague was then doubting herself and wondering if she had done the right thing. The school nurse wasn’t in on that day as she is on a school trip and my friend was covering the first aid.

Probably the SLT wondering about the legal ramifications and safeguarding. Probably wanted a closed shop.

I suppose it doesn't matter as long as the child is OK.

Didn't the ambulance take forever anyway?!

999 - some of these edibles can have chemicals in them that cause heart arrythmias, loss of consciousness, breathing difficulties and seizures. They did the right thing. The 999 operator would have been able to triage the call appropriately and wouldn't have sent an ambulance if they didn't think it necessary.

Absolutely not overreacting.My manager told me off for ringing 999 when the smoke alarms went off.(I worked in a care home).The 'correct procedure' was to manually switch the alarms off,and go around and check the building for a fire myself,instead of wasting the fire departments time.I rang 999.Every single time,as in the policy.

The advice on the British Red Cross First -aid app is to call 999 straight away, so your friend did absolutely the right thing.