Cyclist seriously injured in Teddington

[jefmcg]

The local paper has much the same story, but with the injuries being "not serious"

Very much on my manor, so interested in this. And this roundabout is between the two I have had collisions on this year.

Just for data, I've been involved in 3 ambulance calls this year, all in a 10km radius of this incident (2 on the same day in Clapham - waves at @vickster ) and one at Hampton Court. All three were not life threatening, and in each case the ambulance turned up promptly.

 

[vickster]

I think it was half an hour for that one for me, I can't really remember - the rapid response chap was there more quickly obviously, then the hospital bus showed up. Plod were responsive too

I also called an ambulance after a fall at about 12.30am near home on a Friday night in mid January (ok, I admit it, alcohol was involved, it was my work leaving do ), that ambulance showed up within half an hour too I think (I live under 10 miles from Teddington)

 

[Cuchilo]

Probably best to steer clear of you two then

 

[Ganymede]

Tourniquet will save a life, but much increase the chance of losing the limb.

When I did first aid, we were taught to apply pressure to the wound and artery (eg in the groin) if needed.

First aid training seems to lag a bit in the UK. I did a course in the 1990s in Australia, and was shocked to see in 2000 that the UK Red Cross was still suggesting tourniquets for snake bites, which are both dangerous to the limb and ineffective for venom (travels through the lymph system, apparently, which is not blocked by a tourniquet). I see the UK Red Cross is now recommending pressure bandages.

When I lived in Australia I was told that for snakebite you should press a pebble (or similar) onto the bite and tie it on. Apparently this immobilises the lymph which carries the poison more than the blood does. I was told one story of a trucker who was bitten by a snake which he didn't identify - a brown one, of which there are lots of poisonous versions - and did the thing with the pebble. Drove a long way to the town, got the the hospital, but in order to identify the poison they had to take the pebble away and take a sample. Bloke went straight into a coma, they identified the venom and administered the anti-venine, right as rain in two shakes of a platypus' tail.

Or so they said.

 

[mr_cellophane]

Neither or those web reports has the detail that was in the Standard.
The cyclist teaches cycle safety for Richmond Council and has done for 10 years. She said that it was her first accident in 63 years. She also said that she is very careful and was wearing hi-viz clothing and a helmet. Forgive me, but neither of those was of any use to her today !.