First Aid.?

Question

Do you think that First Aid as a section should be removed,as some of the advice given is dangerous and obviously wrong and do you think if vunerable ppl followed this bad advice Yahoo answers could end up being sued or worse.
I am an ex paramedic and some of the answers on here scare the hell out of me.

Just Q,I have 35 yrs experiance and on defib and CPR we were expected to gain 100% over ten mins,Why we decide to do exactly the same procedure in the moving ambulance and could only achieve 60%,Just an observation but thank you for your expert opinion.Also in other questions ppl mention tourneques(BANNED).

Answer 1

Hi Frank,

I agree with you fully, it to worries me when people ask a question, and are answered by mostly unqualified people, who have no medical or up to date First Aid skills.

Recently a person posted this question, "Reaction to food allergy, what the right thing to do?" what was suggested, and later accepted as being the correct answer, has me very worried for the poor room mate's well being.

So I do believe that First Aid and injuries should be removed. While it is true that people take on advice at their own risk, but with the above question, does raise cause for concern when people who have NO First Aid skills, could very well put someones life at risk, simply because they READ IT on-line.

I always try to take into consideration, that I am in Australia, and put in relevant Aussie, USA and UK links to my answers, this is because the asker could very well be any where. This way they can check out the links closest to them.

I also add my qualifications which are;
Work Place Trainer and Assessor,
Youth worker,
Aust-swim/Vic-swim (swimming) Teacher,
Qualified First Aider and First Aid Teacher
And a Carer of people with disabilities.

Hopefully giving my answers some creditability.

Answer 2

There is a disclaimer somewhere, I read it a while ago. Some of the answers on here could be dangerous if the advice is followed, especially as this site is unregulated - how often have we seen totally abusive posts that we KNOW get reported yet still remain to be accessed by all? The whole health section should be removed in my opinion, disclaimer or no disclaimer. There are thousands of valid and reliable websites and forums out there for health related matters. Yahoo isn't doing its credibility any good by keeping this one going. It's only a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt by following the wrong advice because they don't know any better. I understand that most people genuinely want to help, but ill-informed advice does more harm than good, no matter how well intended.

Answer 3

You make a good point but I do see alot of good and proper answers though they might be lacking some of the finer details.
I think some of this could fall in the Good Samaritan act that has been adopted by several states in the US.
This says you have to stop and render aid if you are qualified to do so and to not do so can cause you more legal grief than stopping and giving the wrong advise.
People who stop and render aid can not be prosecuted for giving wrong help as without any help,there are certain situations that the victim could die.
Though there are Licensed Personnel that also give advise on this site,that does not mean that their advise is correct because there are as many licensed personnel who are quacks as there are Dr's. . . so how can you fault some of the answers on this site?
I have 30+ yrs of medical experience. . Being an OR nurse,an Opthalmology Assistant and volunteering for the Red Cross. I make 90 or above on my CPR certification so I feel pretty knowledgeable in my advise. . .
Up to this point,I have not seen any real questions about life threatening situations nor have I seen any life threatening answers.
Most of the answers I have seen are pretty benign and often times too goofy to even be considered to be a real answer.
I betcha if you read the finer print of the Yahoo Answers disclaimer it allows for the circumstances you speak of.

Answer 4

it's a good point to make. Yet they could be sued over almost any of the sections. We are in the age of suing. However people take advice at their own risk I presume and will read all answers. Not all the answers are going to be dangerous - one or two should stick out as being so, from the rest of the answers which should be similar. I do think the answerers should be responsable enough not to answer a question unless they know what they're talking about. People should care more about each other and less about gaining points. You do have a good point. You should try and get feedback from Yahoo over it though and see what their opinion is.

Answer 5

I don't know specifically about the first aid section as I haven't reviewed it in complete detail (my account is only a few days old), but I think there should be some limitation on the answers provided and that there should either be some kind of disclaimer with all the answers or limitation on the categories one is allowed to post in. I too have seen some terrible and completely wrong advice given for questions that are very important and require the input of the poster's physician.

Answer 6

The advice given in the First Aid forums is just as good and bad as it is in almost every other forum, from relationships to pet care.

Some of the answerers are clearly insane, but this kind of forum has been around for a LONG time online (I used to be a part of Ask Jeeve's AnswerPoint many years ago) and the likelihood of being sued is not very realistic.

Yahoo could post warnings up the ying-yang and people would ignore them.

The choice is really yours- you can participate and try to raise the level of answer quality, or you can wash your hands of it and try to help people in another arena.

Answer 7

Some interesting points, I am a trained First responder for local ambulance service, but only trained in certain areas fully, but do hold a full First Aid Cert and train in Care, but i would not want to offer advice just in case, it can also be mis read if in a hurry or fine details forgotten by the time it is put into practice. I do think that NHS direct would be a better option for advice UMMM

Answer 8

I'm also a medic, although I don't have anywhere near 35 years experience. Some of the answers on here scare the crap out of me too, but I think this is one of those times when people need to take some responsibility for their actions. When you go to a place like this for advice, you don't know who the advice is coming from. I think people reading these answers need to accept personal responsibility for trying unverified advice from an unknown source. Although whenever I answer a question, I always add a waver myself telling the people to seek medical care.

Answer 9

As a current Paramedic for 11years I hear and have seen what you are talking about however, If people choice to accept their Medical Advice from a web-site such as this then that falls on the person not the site. Not all people here are giving wrong advice,myself as well as you pride ourselves on our work so all we can do is either answer the questions or stay away from this category

Answer 10

I think it could be a valuable tool - obviously some of the answers (for that matter some of the questions) are just way off the wall - if people read the answers carefully they will see the ones that are actually entered by knowledgeable people trying to help - best answer - COMMON SENSE! not old family recipes works best