Blood and plasters

Preparations for the workshop day went on even after we returned to the camp in the evening. I had the pleasure of witnessing about fifteen Bosnian Red Cross volunteers practice their first aid exercises which are to be shown tonight, at the injuries- and first aid stall. Everyone had prepared their emergency kit, ready to save some lives on the football field. Out of nowhere, a plastic dummy appeared on which basic resuscitation methods were to be practiced. Soon, heated debates among the volunteers began about the exact number of strokes, accompanied by bleeping sounds from the saved, or soon-to-be-saved, dummy. I was deeply impressed by the scene that unfolded before my eyes; every grip, every detail had to be perfect. The volunteers worked with great precision and concentration. I felt like an intruder whose mere presence disturbed an almost sacred ritual.

Afterwards, the whole dining room began to fill with medical equipment, bandages, plasters, vaseline, and cups of fake blood. The whole scene and atmosphere seemed to be taken straight out of a medical TV drama and feverish concentration spread throughout the room. 

Danijela, a Bosnian volunteer from Bijelijna, took her time to explain me all the different kinds of bandages and their purpose, which injuries they would be used for and why. Like many of the volunteers, she wants to go on to study medicine. But even those, who pursue an academic path in the non-medical realm showed great enthusiasm and knowledge about first aid principles and the treatment of injuries and other medical conditions. Every volunteer is in charge of one injury or medical condition; Danijela’s bag contains mostly things needed to treat epilepsy patients, whereas others will be responsible for flesh wounds. Azmir took great pains to create a scary looking flesh wound on Ermin’s arm, using Vaseline and red color. The effect was so dramatic that I felt queasy merely looking into the general direction of Ermin.

gross......

This earnestness with which the volunteers prepared their equipment left me deeply impressed, one might have to add, that first aid and provision of medical care is one big pillar of their Red Cross activities, whereas in Basel, great emphasis is put on the integration of minorities and migrants or on reaching out to the elderly and  disabled. Our room project as such rather falls into the second category, one which was perhaps less familiar to the Bosnian Red Cross volunteers and thus, more difficult to implement. Yesterday, however, presented a great learning experience for us, Swiss volunteers, as we stood beside and watched how lives were saved.

and this is how you treat a broken bone