A practical step to prevent farm tragedies

Damian McCarney

In the decade 2006-2015 there were 194 deaths on Irish farms. Each year there are on average 2,500 farm accidents. While such grim stats result in occasional hand-wringing by officials, Ballyhaise Teagasc has offered a more practical response.

Teagasc adviser Niall McCabe has recruited two first aid experts for a one-day course for farmers, their families, and rural communities targeted at stemming the torrent of accidents.
“The figures are far too high,” says Niall, “of all industries and sectors, agriculture stands out on its own. Cavan’s no different than anywhere else, there’s so many accidents here.”
The course aims to give preventative advice, and also provide first aid guidance with a focus on the most common accidents recorded on farms.
“If something goes wrong,” continues Niall, “and you’ve an accident with a machine, or an accident with an animal or you find someone who fell off a roof - we all ring for the emergency services, but while you are waiting for someone to come and give you help, in that 20 or 15 minutes what do you actually do? What do you do before the professional paramedics arrive?”
That’s where the healthcare professionals Niamh Gaffney and Terry Dore come in. They will give advice for people facing those three key scenarios: machinery accidents, falls from heights, and animal attacks.
“We’ll go through the scenarios with the mannequins and how you take control of the scene from there, and help the patient until the health professionals arrive,” Niall assures.
Terry Dore, who is an advanced paramedic and Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council tutor explains that the extent of injuries can, in some instances, such as a spinal injury, be exacerbated by an untrained person trying to help.
Niamh, who is an emergency medical technician, and full time first aid instructor insists that the course will be of use to anyone living in rural communities.
“It’s not just about educating the farmer. Often the farmer is injured and he or she will rely upon the help of the family and community, so we are hoping to aim this course at family and community as oppose to just farmers.
“We would welcome older teenagers onto this course as well because very often they are home when an accident happens and they are the ones who respond,” she says.
Niall also notes that non-farmers will benefit from the advice because it is not just farmers who are injured on farms.
“Younger people and retired people are the real high risk brackets - the statistics with young people on farms are frightening,” Niall correctly observes.
Of the 16 who died in farm accidents in 2015, three were under 18, while four were over 65-years-old.
When Niall asked Aidan Fortune if he’d be interested in hosting the training session at his Tullylough House farm on the outskirts of Cavan Town, he was eager to accept. He appreciates that the importance of first aid courses extend beyond the farm gate.
“I think it’s so important because if something happens on the pitch, or something happens in a farm, or something happens in the town - if you are walking up the street and someone collapses in front of you, at least you have some idea of what to do... there’s nothing as hateful as standing there helpless.”
Niall concedes that accident prevention and first aid do not account for “a huge aspect” of the Green Cert. The Celt observes that it should be mandatory to learn first aid in national school and secondary school.
“We’re working on it,” says Niamh.
“There’s a lot of resistance to change in this country,” adds Terry. “I’ve been pushing big time for teaching it in transition years. You can learn what you want from books, but these are life skills. And if it makes a difference for one person, all of this is worth it.”
Terry says “you can never be too safety conscious” and hopes that there will be a large uptake for the course.
“It’s a unique opportunity not to be missed,” he adds.
Those who undertake in the course will receive a certificate of attendance, valid for two years.
“What you really get is knowledge which could maybe save someone’s life, or prevent them having a life-changing injury,” says Terry, “What price do you put on that?”

Aidan’s close call

Four farmers were killed by livestock in 2015 alone, Aidan Fortune, who will host the farm safety event in June, lived up to his name when he avoided becoming number five. Holding out his wrists, Aidan shows the scars and bruising that remain from an attack by a cow during calving season. Each year cows are responsible for more attacks than bulls.
Aidan was disinfecting a newborn calf’s navel, when its protective mother charged. “From the corner of my eye I could see that she was coming,” recalls Aidan, “and didn’t look happy. I jumped up on the gate as quick as I could, and I got to about the third rung and she got in behind me and pucked me straight across the gate.
“I was lucky that the pen I put her in had a gate. Had it been a wall I was gone - I’d have had no escape.”
Of course he’s not alone in having a close call.
“I know lots of neighbours here have been attacked by cows, or caught in machinery, but luckily enough they’ve survived to tell the tale. But in a lot of cases they don’t.”