Four final year paramedic students have been praised for their efforts and skills at the site of a single vehicle crash on route to a weekend rugby match.
CSU students and rugby players Mathew Schofield, Sam Rutley, Blayne Duncan and Tom Pegler came across the car on the side of the road on the Mitchell Highway, near Molong.
The crash victims, team members of the Dubbo Demons Australian Football Club, were still in shock when the paramedic students approached to assist them.
Mr Schofield told CSU the students, along with a registered nurse who was driving past, were able to help and comfort the players until paramedics arrived at the scene.
“When we came across the overturned car, the training and skills we’d learnt during our Paramedic degree just kicked in,” Mr Schofield said.
“It seemed natural to provide medical help at the crash site. After three years of study, it was good to be able to help and know exactly what to do and when to do it.”
The crash victims were taken to Orange Base Hospital by an ambulance and have since been released. They are all recovering from their injuries.
At a rugby game earlier in the season, a Narromine rugby player started screaming from the bottom of a ruck.
Three final year paramedicine students and rugby players, Mathew Schofield, Sam Ruttley and Josh Casey were quick to provide initial treatment for the Narromine footballer who had injured his neck.
According to Mr Schofield there was a single paramedic officer at the football oval in Narromine.
The three students assisted the paramedic officer by securing the injured player’s neck with a collar, drawing up pain relief and loading him into the ambulance.
“Otherwise he would have to lay on the ground until a second NSW Ambulance arrived,” Mr Schofield said.
Charles Sturt University Vice-Chancellor Professor Andrew Vann has since added his praise for the quick thinking of the students.
“The actions of the students in both cases, on the Mitchell Highway and at Cale Oval, are a testament to their drive to be paramedics,” Professor Vann said.
“I have frequent cause to be proud of our students. But the actions of these young men is exactly the kind of contribution that makes me proud to be the Vice-Chancellor of Charles Sturt University.
“I look forward to shaking their hands at graduation.”
