It’s that point of the 12 months once more, and Dr Chris Luke provides recommendation to anxious mother and father of youngsters
Well, it’s that ‘deep-breath’ time of the 12 months once more, for some mother and father: the peak of our unreliable Irish summer season, when hordes of youngsters head off to some sun-drenched fleshpot within the Mediterranean, to have a good time the conclusion of the ‘Leaving Cert’. And their mother and father are left at house to stress about each conceivable horror that may end in a dreaded late-night knock on the entrance door. It hasn’t helped that, simply as these nervous last-minute conversations are going down, there’s been the nightmarish case involving a 19-year-old on his first vacation with out his mother and father (Jay Slater apparently vanished ‘into skinny air’ in Tenerife after reportedly leaving a nightclub ‘worse for ‘put on’).
I’ve a specific curiosity on this type of situation, not least as a result of I’ve been giving talks to high school mother and father’ teams for years about how their treasured offspring can keep away from ending up in a hospital emergency division (or, heaven forbid, a mortuary), particularly on this annual southerly migration. I initially began the tutorial train out of a perception that the easiest way to ease the perennial overcrowding of our EDs isn’t solely to develop the ‘provide’ aspect of healthcare, however – crucially – to shrink the demand, by making as many mother and father as doable conscious of the hazards that line the route to each Departamento de Emergencia.
Now (to borrow from George Bernard Shaw), it’s taken me a long time of ‘studied self-restraint, aided by the pure decay of my colleges, to make myself uninteresting sufficient to be accepted as a critical particular person’. However those that knew me once I was a teen will testify that I used to be exactly the type of errant teenager who elicits the utmost of parental angst (in my case, that of a poor lone-parent mom, within the pre-smartphone period, worrying the place I used to be for days at a time, as I hitched from Amsterdam to Barcelona, or from South Dublin to any accessible occasion in Kinsale, Kerry or Leitrim).
I used to be additionally a (junior) frequent flyer within the ‘Casualty Departments’ of South Dublin. And, by the point I used to be a young-doctor-about-town, I used to be a completely credentialed ‘occasion animal’, and a hardened veteran of sticky flooring from Harcourt Road to Leeson Road, the Pink Elephant and Tamangos.
So a heady mixture of, er, ‘atonement’ for what I did to my long-suffering late mom and appreciable expertise as each occasion animal and healthcare supplier to occasion animals, continues to drive my mission to boost consciousness amongst mother and father of the ever-evolving checklist of perils going through their kids abroad. And right here’s a distillation of what each affected guardian ought to be contemplating – prematurely!
There are three easy steps to buying a working data of the dangers round a teen once they fly off to hitch the annual bacchanalia, from Ayia Napa to Zanthe. Firstly, there’s the cautious use of creativeness. So, moderately than simply diffusely worrying (“OMG. Positive something may occur to my son/daughter!”), I recommend that individuals hold just a few ‘actual’ tales in thoughts.
For example, memorable vacation misadventures in 2023 concerned the drunken younger Irishman in Brussels who clambered onto a (freshly and expensively) restored statue of a lion and snapped off its tail, the younger Irish rugby fan who was reportedly gang-raped in Bordeaux, the spouse of an Irishman who died from botulism acquired from sardines in a Bordeaux wine bar, individuals shopping for ‘pink cocaine’ and super-strength MDMA on the Electrical Picnic in County Laois, and the horrible deaths of two Irish youngsters on the Greek island of Ios, inside hours of one another. These had been all real-world circumstances with real-world classes for each guardian. However, just like the Jay Slater case, they had been all comparatively uncommon occasions.
It’s after all essential to ‘tame’ a probably wild creativeness in terms of the hazards of any youthful exercise: briefly, to steadiness emotions with details. Take, as an example, the sport of rugby. I’m a eager fan, and I’ve spent a deal of time as a ‘medic’ taking care of grownup groups and teenage gamers, from 13 to 19. Such expertise finally yields a way of what’s a critical medical concern, or not, and – simply as importantly – what to anticipate. Like all areas of medical observe, the novice discerns patterns inside (and on) the sector and so learns to anticipate the most typical accidents and illnesses.
In rugby union, then, the highest 5 accidents will sometimes embrace hamstring pressure, head accidents, sprained ankle, acromio-clavicular joint (ACJ) sprain, and fracture-dislocation of the thumb. Small wounds are frequent, too, however – reassuringly, maybe – that the majority terrifying of all occasions, the sudden cardiac arrest in a younger participant, impacts simply 1-3 athletes per 100 000, per 12 months.
So, sure, there have to be an automatic exterior defibrillator (AED) rapidly accessible in each (rugby or night time) membership, however what is required typically is a drink or splash of chilly water, a tissue to dab cuts or noses, a sling or strapping, some Vaseline, and a bag of ice. And, by way of first-aid, administration principally includes stopping the sport, staying calm and never making issues worse, protecting a casualty nonetheless – and within the ‘restoration place’ if unconscious – till extra professional assist arrives, and so forth.
Precisely the identical ideas apply to a struggle outdoors a bar in Magaluf, or a medical disaster in Santa Ponsa. And when paramedics or police arrive, they’ll have to know in regards to the casualty’s allergic reactions, drugs, earlier medical historical past, final mealtime, and what’s occurred (the ‘occasion’). The medical aide-memoire is A.M.P.L.E. What additionally helps is that if the casualty’s pals know the distinction between getting assist now (e.g. for an inert sufferer, a large apparent damage or anaphylaxis) or later (e.g. the subsequent day, for more-painful accidents, or for a headache or vomiting which might be progressive).
The second step in consciousness is enough preparation (‘fail to arrange…’). Meaning realising that ‘context is all’, in terms of avoiding hazards, or coping with their victims. For example, once I was a lad, the legendary ‘nightlife’ in Ios was on the high of the picturesque however barren and mountainous island, and if somebody tried to descend the steep and rocky slope on the rear of the city (the place there’s no precise path), in a rush, at midnight, and whereas intoxicated, the outcomes may very well be disastrous. One other level to keep in mind is that intoxication with alcohol is the first driver of most mishaps: the result’s usually ‘irrational exuberance’ (a.ok.a. ‘Dutch braveness’) which leads kids to leap off balconies into shallow swimming pools, go skinny-dipping within the pitch darkish, or wander about within the blazing sunshine, take capsules and powders they wouldn’t in any other case go close to, have dangerous intercourse, or fall sufferer to random one-punch assaults or sexual assaults.
And preparation means understanding the ‘terrain’ (simply as one would earlier than a highway journey), to see the place the waterfront or native river is, the mountains, lodging, social ‘scorching spots’, hospital, airport and many others. Preparation additionally means brainstorming about what would possibly occur in medical phrases.
“What may probably go mistaken?” is a comic book quip nowadays, nevertheless it’s additionally a very powerful query to be posed earlier than any teenager heads off with out their mother and father. And the reply is: a flare-up of a long-standing situation like bronchial asthma, nervousness or irritable bowel illness, stuff particular to the vacation spot (from excessive warmth to processionary caterpillars to moped mishaps on winding roads), points with meals, allergic reactions or footwear, and the sometimes-tragic penalties of ‘irrational exuberance’ (not forgetting that probably the most harmful creature in all vacation resorts is human).
The third step in awareness-raising is precise ‘schooling’, the place mother and father and offspring test what they know in regards to the vacation vacation spot, and what they should know, particularly about first-aid, their very own medical historical past, and the remedy wanted for themselves – and their buddies (as a result of the First Rule of Buddies-on-Tour is: Look After One One other! The Second Rule? Don’t Let Anybody Get Separated From The Group!). Any first-aid gaps must be stuffed (at house or at school). So get them to do ‘sniffing the morning air’ and the ‘restoration place’. Be sure that they’ve their traditional remedy, plus water, snacks, sunscreen, band-aids, tissues, Ibuprofen, Paracetamol, condoms, and cozy footwear, in addition to paper copies of passports, debit playing cards, aircraft tickets, and many others. If there’s a sensible danger of their smartphone being misplaced, a spare flip-phone could be very useful. Plus a bit of money.
Then, when you concentrate on it (ideally lengthy earlier than the aircraft takes off), they’ll most likely be proper as rain. However will you continue to be anxious sick about them? Sure, after all. That’s the First Regulation of Parenting. 
