CLS Training Day 1

So I started Combat Life Saver training today. Its is a refresher for me but a first time for most of the other guys I'm training with, Its very funny to watch peoples expressions while your working on them. That's me on the left and a friend of mine on the right. The class started off with a dull set of powerpoints that lasted like three hours or so, we went over everything that we would learn in the coarse, we even talked a bit about what coarse material we might run up against in Iraq. The whole time I sat and stared at the tent I was in, the guys who put it all together used a two-inch layer of polyurethane (PU) foam. This stuff usually takes about 20 minutes to set after spraying on and was sprayed directly onto the tent material. Strangely enough it was freezing outside and as soon as I walked in you could tell right away by the heat in the tent how effective this stuff works. As we finished up the powerpoints and ran off to lunch I could help but remember 1 and a half years ago when the last time it was that I took this class. I was so worried, so concerned that I would mess up something, I remember that feeling of uncertainty about my abilities to perform. Now that I've been through the coarse I feel so confident about it, and even have a sense of muscle memory. The picture on the right is of me getting stuck with the catheter in my under arm. We had to flush the catheter as soon as the saline lock was screwed on and the tegaderm dressing was in place. The picture on the bottom left is of the saline be drawn out by the syringe. My friend did a really good job sticking me, he had found my vein pretty well even though it wasn't visible at all, he went by touch in this case and had me worried for a second until he actually got the saline attached to me in the picture on the right.

As soon as I was done I overheard a bunch of screaming over on the far side of the tent. One of the trainnies was freaking out and lost control of the catheter, blood was spraying everywhere. I ran over as quick as I could to take a snap shot of the picture below.
After the excitement settled down, I went back to my table and we had to clean up everything, I also had to empty out the rest of the saline out of the bag outside. These guys were outside emptying there liquids.