DURING a weekend break to London an off-duty retained firefighter and a student nurse, both from Bude, helped to save the life of a cyclist who had been hit by a car.

Bridget Hemmings, a second year nursing student, and her boyfriend Barney Day, a retained firefighter for Bude Community Fire Station, really proved how vital first aid training is whilst on their weekend break to London when they were witness to the collision between a car and a cyclist.

Speaking to the Post about the incident, Bridget said: “We were just stood at the traffic lights waiting to cross when a car hit a man on his bicycle. It was a little odd actually as the cyclist somehow landed on his feet then ran a couple of steps forward before falling to the ground unconscious.”

The cyclist had sustained some bad injuries and was initially fairly unresponsive.

Both Bridget and Barney have received some form of first aid training in their job roles and knew how to handle the situation.

The cyclist was laying in the middle of a three-lane road in a very busy part of London but Bridget and Barney’s training came into action and they were able to take charge of the situation quickly, call for an ambulance and stabilise the patient — all whilst under the watchful gaze of over 50 bystanders.

However, Bridget explained that many of the bystanders who tried to ‘help’ were in fact making the situation worse due to a lack of knowledge.

She said: “It is really true how important a knowledge of first aid is as we found out from this experience. One of the people stood next to me was trying to move the man’s head and I asked if they had any medical training and the response I got was ‘Well, sort of. I work in a clinic’.

“I said that was no good and we proceeded to ask people to move back out of the way. We assessed that his breathing was regular and were able to get an ambulance out pretty quickly.”

Bude Community Fire Station, where Barney is stationed as a retained firefighter, posted on their Facebook page about the incident and, together with Bridget and Barney, they are trying to emphasise to the public the importance of first aid training.

They wrote: ‘With a crowd of 50-plus bystanders watching, and some (who had no medical knowledge) trying to intervene and potentially make the situation worse, this incident demonstrates the importance of why everyone should have some basic first aid knowledge.’

Bridget said: “Both being trained we went over to offer assistance and we want to make people aware now of how vital having some knowledge of first aid is because many of those who were at the scene didn’t know what to do.”

The cyclist had sustained some bad injuries although none were life threatening and was initially unresponsive and in a state of shock. However, thanks to the quick response of Bridget and Barney, their knowledge of first aid and the services provided by the ambulance service, the cyclist was soon taken off to St Mary’s hospital.