Medical training in preparation for our travels

When we started preparing for our Big Trip, we brainstormed on what we needed to know and learn. Sailing, obviously, but also on our list were some medical skills such as suturing and injecting.

We have an extensive medical kit on board Blue Pearl, including suture kits, syringes, needles and all the not-fun stuff you would/could need in case of an emergency. We never set out to become medical experts but having at least used these items once in a training environment seemed like a sensible thing to do.

Today we had someone come to our home to help us achieve just that. She came to us with a big bin filled with medical supplies, books and more knowledge about both sailing and healthcare than we would ever hope to accumulate.

We learned how to take blood pressure.

How to prepare and give an IV.

(Above: Our teacher was very creative and had made a mock ‘arm’ from a sponge with a piece of tubing for an artery, for us to practice on)

We also practiced injecting subcutaneously and intramuscularly (into the sponge, thankfully) and how to suture a cut.

Rene also got to try CPR on a CPR manikin.

I truly hope we will NEVER have to use all this information but it does feel good to know that if it really is needed and there is an emergency, we can DO SOMETHING.

I’ll also put together a video from today. I’m not sure when this will be up, though, as I am still working on editing various other videos. Subscribe to our blog via email if you don’t want to miss out on this (or on future posts) or subscribe to our youtube channel.