A helping hand ? No way, you are on your own.

[Mousey]

Like you Dave, I've done a few first aid courses and my instructor told me this story about some peoples' mindset about helping others.

Apparently it happened in England a few years ago. A lifeguard was on duty at a public swimming pool. A little girl under 10 years of age tried to dive into the pool but bellyflopped - she hit the bottom of the pool with her head and chest. She had done catastrophic damage to both parts of her body, but when the lifeguard saw the bloom of blood in the water, he fished her out and lay her down on the deck.

There was no pulse that he could detect and she was not breathing. Unable to tell that her sternum and ribs had been cracked by the impact on the bottom of the pool, he pushed down onto her chest as per normal CPR - her breastbone and ribs gave way, and it was game over for the poor wee girl.

After the ambulance and police had been and gone, and several days later, he was arrested following a complaint from the child's parents who alleged that he had been the one that killed their daughter with his mishandling of CPR. They had launched both a civil and criminal action against him. He was suspended from his job pending the investigation, the local newspapers were all over the story, and everyone who knew him indirectly looked at him like he was a murderer.

This whole thing went on for over a month until the coroner's results were made public. The coroner had found that the initial skull fracture was the cause of death, not the attempt at CPR. In his report, he stated clearly that the lifeguard was not at fault, was adhering to the principles of first aid and would have been completely unable to tell that the child was mortally injured.

The case apparently led to the passing of a Good Samaritan law in the UK - if you stop to help someone and unknowingly compound their injuries, or (for example) assist in the preservation of the life of someone who has a DNR order, you cannot be prosecuted for it. I'm not sure how clear the law is - for example, could you be prosecuted if you were not a first aider and you made a hames of whatever you were trying to do to help - but as far as I know, Ireland has no such Good Samaritan law.