Starting the week with some serious emergency scenarios!
I’m not talking about fire, leaks or toxic spills, but rather medical emergencies. Whether we are designated Crew Medical Officers or not, we are all trained in responding in case a crew-mate has no pulse and/or is unable to breath. We have a permanently deployed Crew Medical Restraint System with which we can keep someone in a stable position to administer CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation). I attached a couple of pictures from Expedition 34 in which you can see that crew-members have different options in weightlessness when it comes to body positions to administer compression.
My day will start with a refresher on the emergency response equipment, from the restraint table to the AED (Automated External Defibrillator) and the Respiratory Support Pack and then I’ll move on to a class on the actual emergency response procedures. They’re not unlike any procedure you might have learned in a first aid course, but optimized for the specific situation we have on-board, the equipment we have available and the fact that we can’t call 112 or 911.
Later I’ll have a meeting at the Food Lab to start discussing the content of my bonus food container and then I’ll drive to the NBL for the 1G class of Friday’s pool run. We call 1G classes the preparatory events in which the instructors describe to us the tasks for the upcoming run and we get to manipulate in a 1G environment, i.e. outside of the pool, the tools and equipment we’ll be dealing with in the water. Some giant components can be very heavy in 1G, but the pool models are made as neutrally buoyant by adding foam. It’s as close as it gets to weightlessness!
Expedition 34 crew practice CPR. Credits: NASA
Expedition 34 crew practice CPR. Credits: NASA
05/08/2013