First aid in adventure

I was in junior secondary school when I first learned the meaning of the common term "first aid." I remember the day it was explained to us by the teacher; we were all amazed because we had been performing first aid without knowing what it was called. Wouldn't you be surprised to find out that saving someone at an accident scene or plucking and squeezing leaves into an injury from a cutlass cut is first aid? It's funny how we couldn't understand some simple terms. You can't blame us; we grew up in the village.

As I mentioned, first aid was something we grew up with without knowing its name. In the early stages of my life, we embarked on many adventures as children. We would go into the bush to hunt animals or pluck cashews and mangoes. These cashew trees weren't ours, and it was never termed stealing, but if the owner caught us, we would receive some whipping.

On one of those adventures, we initially planned to hunt rabbits and squirrels, but after touring around, we found nothing.

Instead of going back empty-handed, we decided to hunt for cashews. It was a bush area, though not far from the living area but the bush was far enough to swallow up someone's shout. There were three of us: two(I and one other boy) climbed up the tree while one stayed down, seated and relaxed, waiting to catch the plucked cashews.

A few minutes after we went up, we heard a loud shout, "Ayaaahhhhhhhhh! My God!" We looked down to see our friend running frantically in the grass under the cashew tree. We didn't need anyone to tell us to come down. We jumped down, held him, and discovered he had been bitten by a scorpion. We knew no remedy for such a bite other than tying up the spot to stop blood flow to hinder the circulation of the poison.

We searched for a rope, but unfortunately, couldn't find one because it was a busy area. I went into some houses under development in the area and found an empty cement bag. We cut it into a small strip with a cutlass, tied his leg where he was bitten, and throughout this, he was shouting very loudly.

We didn't hesitate; we abandoned our cashew hunt and carried him to the nearest chemist shop, where he was attended to while we went to call his parents. When our parents learned about it, they gave us mixed reactions: praise for tying the bitten spot and reprimands for going out to hunt. When I got home that evening, my dad whipped me with his customized cane and made me swear I wouldn't do anything like that again. I took the oath, but it wasn't the first or the last time until I grew older and left that lifestyle behind.

This incident happened before we were taught first aid in school. We learned to tie close to a scorpion bite to stop the blood flow, preventing the venom from circulating in the body. We learned that from people's experiences and stories.

Thank you for reading.

| All photos are mine |