Clinical support officer Christian Whiteman has provided some simple steps to help you help emergency services.
Ambulance Victoria is urging farmers and farmworkers to be vigilant with safety this Farm Safety Week.
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Christian Whiteman has been with Ambulance Victoria for 23 years and currently working as a clinical support officer, with Kyabram being in his jurisdiction.
In an interview with Country News, he said farm incidents aren’t rare in the region.
“Unfortunately, we see far too many farmers in the area that I work, they’ve had particularly traumatic injuries, so we tend to find that things like heavy machinery incidents, people being crushed or kicked by livestock, falls from ladders and this sort of things, are really common incidents for us,” Mr Whiteman said.
“On top of that, we have a lot of more, regular, smaller non-life threatening injuries and incidents, but certainly those larger, life-threatening, life-changing stick out in your mind.
“These can sometimes be quite complex things for us because we’ve got an imperative to get to the patient and start treating them as soon as possible, but that can be quite logistically challenging in that farmers don’t often have incidents in nice, easy to access locations.
“We might need four-wheel drive or specialist equipment just to get us to where the farmer is at the time, getting adequate resources into them can be challenging.”
He said he did not do it alone, quite often needing support from agencies such as SES and CFA, especially in situations involving heavy machinery.
On-farm incidents are particularly heavy, he said, as they are often people’s place of work and residence.
“We tend to find that farm scenes can be quite tragic when they have poor outcomes for patients because the farm isn’t just someone’s workplace, it’s often someone’s place of residence as well,” Mr Whiteman said.
“The family’s there, loved ones are there, so often they’re quite emotional, emotive scenes.
“I’ve been to a number of jobs where people have been heavily entrapped in combines and bits of machinery, and we’re there for a long time trying to help them and get them extricated and their colleagues, their loved ones, are maybe there witnessing part of that as well and that can be quite traumatic for them.”
His advice for farmers and those who work on farms is to never neglect the little things.
“We don’t often go to farmers where they’re doing something that’s new or unique today, that’s put them into this situation, often there are lots of aspects of that work that’s quite dangerous, and as we do things routinely or daily, that danger isn’t always as apparent, but it’s always just as dangerous,” he said.
“One of the things for me is just that awareness that just because something is routine doesn’t make it’s not dangerous, and also there’s a lot of times when people are working very long hours, fatigue creeps in, there are time pressures, there’s weather pressures, but bits of machinery can be replaced; people can’t be.”
A trend he has noticed in his time working with farmers, is the stoicism, but Mr Whiteman said it’s always better to reach out.
“One of the things that we see with farmers quite often is that they neglect the small things when it comes to their own health,” he said.
“If it’s not a life-threatening, or they don’t perceive it to be a life-threatening problem, sometimes they won’t reach out to the ambulance service to come and help them.
“There are other telehealth services that they can contact if they feel like they need help, but it’s not, in their perception, a life-threatening issue.”
He listed the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department and Nurse-on-call as first steps if you are unsure whether emergency services are required.
Help ambos help you
To assist emergency services better locate you in a time of need, Mr Whiteman listed out some simple steps.
Have your farm clearly signposted. Ensure street numbers or farm names are easily seen from the road, especially at night.
Inform the telephone operator of anything that may make it hard to access the site. For example, if a 4WD is necessary, or if there’s low visibility.
If someone is available to meet them at the front gate, it will help emergency services locate you.
Download the EmergencyPlus app. A street address can be vague if you’re located on a large property. The EmergencyPlus app allows the 000 call takers to access the inbuilt GPS on your phone.
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