If only I’d had my Nurse in a Bag RISE kit!
Living on a sailboat definitely has its benefits, and one of those in the sense of community we have on our dock. Elliott, my husband and Del, our dockmaster, had gone out to rescue a sailboat that had lost power and gone aground in the shoals of Sapelo Sound, an area with an ever-changing sandy bottom. Running aground isn’t uncommon – just a couple weeks ago, I’d gone (softly) aground in an area marked on the charts as 19 feet, and we only draw 4 feet 2 inches. It’s something we learn to live with here in coastal Georgia.
Del and Elliott towed the sailboat that had run aground, Glitter, several miles to our dock and had radioed in that we’d need to be on hand to catch lines to stop her once she came abreast of the dock. Six of us were there, only one of us under the age of 40 (and even maybe 50. 60? It’s hard to tell with active, fit sailors!).
Elliott untied Glitter from the towboat, and she rolled in a bit faster than we’d expected. One of the men on board threw a line to a waiting helper, but one line isn’t always enough to stop a 13,000-lb. sailboat, so he scurried back to throw another line to one of us waiting on dock.
One man caught the second line, but it pulled him forward a few feet. He braced himself, but the force of the incoming boat strained his shoulder. Two of us rushed to his side, looped the line around a post, and stopped the boat, and all ended well—except for the shoulder.
After Glitter was securely tied to the dock, I rushed back to Kathryn, our own vessel, intending to grab a RISE bag. Alas, I had cleaned out the head (where we keep our first aid supplies) and we had temporarily moved everything there into our car (there’s very little “dumping” space on a boat), and the car was a mile away.
Wouldn’t you know something would happen during the few hours my Nurse in a Bag RISE first aid kit wasn’t handy! If I’d had it right then, we could have used the instant cold pack to help stop his shoulder pain. He had ibuprofen on board his boat, and later on I offered the Biofreeze and Epsom salts to help with the soreness, which I’m sure was much appreciated.
Having the right first aid supplies on hand the moment they’re needed helps the injured person, of course, but it also gives those of us who want desperately to help the ability to do something other than gawk, express sympathy, and generally make nuisances of ourselves.
The nurse approved RISE kit would have been a real blessing. It’s why we got into bulk first aid supplies distribution, and chose to create a series of nurse first aid kits that treat minor injuries around the home and workplace.