Casualty Simulation

Notes

• Background: Teaching First Aid can be difficult, it is a very important and serious subject but somehow, placing crisp white bandages onto an imaginary injury just does not conjure up the image of a real accident.
  The troop who devised this has come up with a number of ways of doing casualty simulation on a shoestring, and they seem to work quite nicely.
  One restriction to remember is that many Scouts don't know what a real wound looks like, so might not realise quite how effective these are, I am not going to suggest how to overcome that!
• Time: From 30 minutes to several hours
• Location: Anywhere

Equipment

• A cheap watercolour palette (cheap and nasty toy one will do)
• Vaseline
• Tissues - plain white and thin
• Fake Flesh
• Butterknife
• Double-sided fabric plaster (Cheap stuff in rolls)
• Skin toned foundation powder or liquid (£4)
• Fake Blood
• Stuff to stick into wounds (nails, wood, screwdriver etc.)
• Bones of various sizes (chicken and Sunday joints are a good source, but keep away from the cat!)
• Scissors

Burns

• Redden the area using a damp fingertip and red watercolour
• Apply a dollop (technical term here) of Vaseline to the area and shape it into a blister shape
• Place a piece of tissue over the vaseline and very carefully rub it until the vaseline soaks in and turns the tissue transparent
• Very carefully, tear away the excess tissue and smooth the ragged edges into the vaseline
• Tips
  • Play around with the red paint before adding the vaseline to produce a really nasty burn.
  • Don't add too much vaseline, most blisters don't stick up like half a ping-pong ball

Wounds

• Cut a piece of double-sided fabric plaster to the approximate size and shape of the wound and stick it down to the arm or leg or whatever. (Don't forget to make sure that they are not allergic to it!)
• Using small pieces of flesh, build up flesh on the bandage
• Carefully blend the flesh with the real skin
• (8G: Do this under running water for a really smooth finish then dab dry to get some texture back.)
• Use make-up to blend the skin tones together
• Now for the wound.....
• Decide on the type of wound you want and simulate it in the flesh
  • Incised Wounds - these are clean cuts from knife slashes or glass, make these by cutting the flesh with a blunt butter knife.
  • Lacerations - these are made by blunter objects like barbed wire. Simulate these by dragging a pencil point through the flesh.
  • Punctures - a stab wound made by a knife, nail etc. Use a blunt pencil to make this by working it in slowly widening circles in the flesh until the desired hole size is made.
• Next you need to dress up the cut. Use the paintbox to redden the inside and the edges of the wound
• Add a few drops of blood inside the wound.
• You can have fun by inserting foreign objects such as nails or wood into the wound.

Variations

• When you have finished with the basics you can really have fun. Open fractures with bones sticking out of the ripped skin.
• Make two lots of fake flesh, one normal coloured and one bright red. Put the red on first then roll out the pink and apply over the top as a thin layer. Cut through the top layer with a blunt knife to produce a REALLY gory effect.
• De-gloved fingers (see right) where the flesh has been ripped off the finger taking most of the bone with it (finger bent over, false stump made and a broken chicken bone used)
• Let your imagination run riot!