An incredible discovery at a first aid course in Milton Keynes
I first heard about the What3Words app about 5-6 years ago from a software engineer in Milton Keynes where I taught first aid. I can’t give the name of the company away because of a glaring error they made in their first aid provision. They were very forward thinking in that they’d had a defibrillator on their wall for 2 years. Brilliant, I thought, but when another employee asked me if there was something wrong with the thing because he’d watched a video and the green light that was supposed to be flashing on the front of the unit wasn’t, I took a look and discovered that the battery hadn’t actually been inserted. There had been no battery inside this defib’ for 2 whole years! If you do have a defib’ and you’re reading this at work please stop and check that the battery is:
- inserted and
- charged
With that said, I thought What3Words sounded like a great idea. Here’s an example of how it works – and the difference it can make to first aid:
How What3Words helps in emergency situations
Say you’re up on Ivinghoe Beacon, a local beauty spot with wonderful views (and in fact where Deadpool and Wolverine meet the dog for the first time as a lot of Deadpool 3 was filmed in the area), and uncle Bernie goes into cardiac arrest because he’s eaten too many pies and knows his way around a packet of Benson & Hedges far too well. Now you’ve got to start CPR and you need a defibrillator fast because for every minute that a defib’ isn’t put onto a casualty their chances of survival decrease by 10%. Very soon you won’t be able to get them back so literally every second does count.
In the heat of the moment you forget the name of Ivinghoe Beacon because this is your first visit and you’re shouting at the poor dispatcher on 999 about Deadpool and Wolverine but she doesn’t like Marvel films because there’s always that annoying bit at the end that breaks into the final credits so she hasn’t got a clue where you are. You’re under a big oak tree and there are 5 sheep around you, no, six now as another one has just leapt into view, but that’s no help and uncle Bernie is very grey has blue lips and is bringing up the pie he had for lunch. You try again, ‘We’re in the car park just up the hill from where they filmed that scene in season 1 of Killing Eve,’ but the dispatcher wasn’t a fan of that either and anyway when they put a beard on Jodie Comer in Season 3 they ruined the entire show.
Let’s stop there and rewind a couple of minutes. Uncle Bernie falls to the floor and stops breathing. Immediately you pull out your smart phone and open What 3 Words. You tell 999 you’re at Torch. Sprains. Secure. This is indeed a square of space in the car park at the top of Ivinghoe Beacon, almost exactly where the ice cream van parks in case you’re a fan. I mean, who doesn’t like ice cream?! Now the emergency services know your location to within 3 square metres. It’s that precise.
It’s a category 1 callout because the patient isn’t breathing and a professional is going to get to you with a defib’ as soon as humanly possible. You keep your phone on speaker and follow the dispatcher’s instructions on how to do CPR. (Or you can pre-empt the whole thing by doing an Emergency First Aid Course with me in Milton Keynes or the surrounding area!)
I loved the thought of the app as soon as I heard about it and whilst uncle Bernie at the top of Ivinghoe Beacon might survive or he might not, the life-saving defib’ would undoubtedly get there sooner thanks to What 3 Words.
Dealing with accidents in remote areas
I fully realise there’s nothing funny about a relative collapsing in a remote area but, like my training (you can view my courses here https://firstaidguy.co.uk/courses/) I do try and keep things light. First aid can be a very tough subject – and it has been for me very recently – so I try and teach it in a light-hearted way.
What 3 Words would also have come in handy for me on the evening of the 22nd August 2013 if it had existed. That was the night I fell off my mountain bike and did quite a good job of writing off the right hand side of my body for a good 6 weeks. I was no bassoon player sleepwalking into a mirror – I think the front tyre of my mountain bike slipped on a damp tree route on a steep hill on the way to Rushmere Park in Leighton Buzzard. There were two problems when this happened, besides the fact that I couldn’t get up afterwards and the incredible pain I was in. Problem one was that I was the only first aider in the group and problem two was that I was at the back so no one had seen me come off. Still, I was reasonably comfortable where I lay and looking up through the canopy of trees in the growing dusk was quite lovely.
It was a warm late-summer’s evening but I started shivering badly within a few minutes of the accident happening. This could mean only one thing: my body was going into shock, and if you’ve ever experienced this, it’s not a nice feeling and even worse, it can become life-threatening very quickly. I didn’t want to bother 999 so I called a paramedic friend of mine who shouted, ‘Get off the phone and call 999!’
I followed his advice. Then I had to explain where I was, which wasn’t so easy, because no part of Deadpool or Killing Eve had been filmed there and What 3 Words wasn’t a thing. I was opposite the golf course, about halfway down the hill, next to a big Rhododendron bush. Well bugger me if the first responder, Sandra, didn’t arrive right next to me with a big cylinder of painkilling gas and air 4 minutes later. Well done her! But if I’d been in Rushmere park itself I wouldn’t have had a clue how to describe my exact location (apart from ‘surrounded by trees,) and the emergency services can’t always triangulate your position from your mobile phone signal, so it’s up to us to download the app.
I’ve used it several times for first aid since, including when my dad collapsed on his driveway with a UTI (Urinary Tract Infection) which made him delirious. The family home is quite remote, and satnav doesn’t work down their lane so there really was only one choice when it came to his location.
That’s how the What3Words app saves time and lives
I haven’t had what my mum would call a ‘proper job’ since I was 24. I’m now 56 and loving teaching first aid: the courses are all the same but the students are all different so no day is like the one before and I often hear from students after they’ve gone to someone’s aid or even saved a life. I really feel like I’m making a difference in my work life even if I never thought I’d end up here. As a young lad I wanted to be a member of the Red Devils parachute team but you have to be a member of the Royal Air Force to qualify and that meant, yes, a proper job. I was tempted though.
However, if I did ever want to apply for a job I’d apply straight to What 3 Words, no question. Every decade or so in first aid, game changing technologies are invented. 10 years or so ago defibrillators became portable and affordable, for example, and in the last few years, What 3 Words has come into being but people are still not using it nearly enough. Not nearly enough. If you have to call 999 there’s quite a high chance that every second will count and you’ll need the emergency services with you without delay.
How What 3 Words came about
The full story behind What 3 Words is available here https://what3words.com/our-story but in brief it was the brainchild of a chap called Chris Sheldrick. Chris used to be a professional bassoon player (besides being a parachutist I also quite fancied being a session Glockenspiel player but it was too niche. I’ve never played the Glockenspiel but I did quite like the tune in No Surprises by Radiohead in which the instrument featured strongly so it was probably just a passing phase) but one night he sleepwalked into a mirror which he not only broke but cut himself so badly on the shards he lost the use of two fingers, which meant he could no longer play the bassoon. He remained in music though, and went into managing musicians but over the course of 10 years he became very frustrated with them turning up in the wrong place.
Once he took a call from a band member saying they’d just sound checked at the wrong wedding and another time a lorry driver dropped a load of equipment off an hour north of Rome instead of an hour south. He obviously needed a fully global positioning system that was a lot more accurate than postcodes and the like. He went to see a mathematician friend of his in Cambridge, Mohan Ganesalingham and a linguist, Jack Waley-Cohen who helped provide memorable words, and with the help of satellite technology they divided the entire globe up into 3-metre by 3-metre squares. Then they applied 3 random English words to each square. It turns out that there are 57 trillion squares around the globe and roughly the same number of random English word combinations. What 3 Words was born. (I think I may have missed out a fourth person here so my apologies!)
Is What 3 Words only for first aid?
No it jolly well isn’t! There’s a bit of tone in this blog, I’ll grant you that. About 75% of the people I teach have heard of What 3 Words and around 40-50% know how to use it and yet so many people don’t, including the sulky bloke I bought a double-glazed window off last night. Dad passed away 3 months ago and I used What 3 Words when things got serious then too. The paramedics were amazing but the damage inside dad’s brain was too severe for any intervention to have worked.
Now, though, I’m trying to make sure mum’s okay by being there as much as possible. She’s probably sick of me, truth be told, but I’m converting a room in one of their barns into an office where I can work when I’m not teaching.
It’s very cold though and along with the thick insulation I’m putting in I’ve had to find a cheap double-glazed window to replace the broken, single-glazed one that’s been there for years. Enter Ebay. I managed to locate the right sized window and it wasn’t too far away from me in Watford. I contacted the seller and asked when I could pick it up but he was adamant I couldn’t arrive before 7:30pm, in late November! I offered to do early morning to at least get some daylight but I got a one-word answer, ‘No.’ So he gave me his address and postcode and off I set in the dark. He lived at number 11 but the satnav insisted his house was further up the road which led to some confusion on my part. Then, when I thought I had to be at the right house, there was no number on the door. The stress the visit gave me was only just worth the window but it could have been solved either by using the app or by Googling his What 3 Words location.
I hope I’ve made a compelling argument in favour of this great app and I’m really grateful that its creators have allowed us to use it completely for free. Remember it next time you’re selling a used window and if you’ve got a UPVC door you’re getting rid of do drop me a line! And play about with the app. It gives you squares on a map but also satellite pictures of the whole world, which was what gave me the location of the ice cream van on Ivinghoe Beacon. I’m a vanilla Mr. Whippy man myself.
Before I go I’ll give you a tip for meeting friends at the O2 in London. My wife and I went to see Take That there a few years back. It wasn’t quite my thing, being more a fan of rock music but credit to the 3 lads they put on a blinding show and I had a great evening.
What struck me most outside the arena itself was how big the place was, and how many restaurants surround it. If you arrange to meet a friend outside Nando’s at the O2 they may well go to the wrong one because there are probably about 4 of them. But if you say ‘Meet me at Bigger. Occurs. Flats.’ they’ll get through possibly thousands of people and meet you right out front.
Well that’s the end of my job application for What 3 Words but check out the 3 examples below too though. Just a few locations that sprang to mind while I was writing this. And if you think a fun first aid course in Milton Keynes or anywhere basically(!) is what you’re after don’t forget to drop me a link via my Contact Me page, here: https://firstaidguy.co.uk/contact-me/
Also, if you’ve got this far, my sincere thanks for reading and I hope you’ve learnt something which will help you in the future. Now check out…
Tiny.Loses.Tree
Cycle. Puppy.Tricks
Among.Jacket.Falls
And let’s not forget that if you Drink.Drive.Daily you’ll end up in the sea (in the North Pacific actually) and in Nebraska don’t forget to Wipe.Several.Times!
Latest feedback from my students:
- Absolutely fantastic trainer. Normally I can get bored on this kind of course but he has really good communication skills.
- Always an amazing experience, always very informative and fun. This is the second time we have done our first-aid training and will be coming back for more.
- Guy is a great, funny and extremely informative guy that explained everything clearly. 100% recommend.
- I can’t sing Guys praises enough. Just completed the first aid course – half practical, half online and really enjoyed it. Guy has a really engaging quality, fun, entertaining, many hilarious anecdotes – ideal for someone like me with attention deficit! Thank you so much Guy!
Recent Comments