IF THE WORST SHOULD HAPPEN
 Landmines KILL!

    If the worst happens and someone is injured by a landmine, and/or you find yourself in a minefield you must be equipped to know what to do. All these techniques are quite complex and cannot be learnt fully just by reading these words. Practical supervised exercises need to be carried out before you can safely retrace, prod or rescue.

    The following is a brief description of the most important minefield techniques. The only other alternative to learning these techniques if you find yourself in a minefield is to stay where you are, call for help and wait until someone comes to rescue you.

*    How to leave a mined area
*    Rescue Procedures #1 'Prodding'
*    Rescue Procedures #2 'First Aid'

Retracing. If the minefield has soft ground and you can see your footprints, then you may be able to retrace your footsteps back to the safe path.

    When you see a mine :-
    * Stop walking immediately
    * Warn others around you to stop walking
    * Look around for warning clues, such as exposed mines, tripwires and avoid
    * Turn around, keeping your feet within the print
    * Retrace all your steps carefully back to the known safe path.
    * It is better not to walk on tip toes because you may lose balance.

    Retracing is not as easy as you may think and requires some practical exercises before you can get it right. Turning around so that you get the right foot forward and also staying within your footsteps can be difficult and needs to be thoroughly learnt from an experienced mine awareness trainer.

Prodding. The only safe way (although it is not 100% guaranteed safe) to rescue someone from a minefield is by 'prodding'. Prodding means to take an instrument (preferably a long blade knife) and probe the ground in front of you to check if there are any mines there. Once you have established there are no mines then you can step inside the prodded area. It is a complex technique so it must be learnt thoroughly as it can be potentially dangerous if done incorrectly. Ideally you should contact the demining/ mine awareness agencies in country and arrange to get some lessons.

    I have decided not to put up detailed prodding instructions because of course I cannot conduct practical exercises with you. If you feel you really need to know, you can email me and I may be able to send some details: (see address below)

    After consultation with deminers in Cambodia the Mine Awareness Training Team (MATT) changed the Land Mine Awareness Programme (LMAP) curriculum and to only train the adults how to prod in a minefield. Children would not be able to take in all the details required to learn prodding correctly.

    We strongly suggested that people practice at home before they need to use it for real. There were ongoing debates about the techniques e.g. should we teach people to lay down flat on the ground to prod, whereas lying on the ground was a cultural taboo. And whether they should prod a full path to the victim or just footsteps (footsteps because it was faster and more practical or a path which is safer especially when you need to carry someone out of a mined area).

    I had been watching people practice prodding for months but found I couldn't do it properly on my first attempt. It was only with a few practices that I was able to prod adequately (luckily I never had to do it in a real situation.

First Aid
1. Remove anything from their mouth of an unconscious injured person.
2. Stop the bleeding by firmly applying a compress to the wound. A compress is a firmly tied bandage along the wound.
3. Elevate the limb above the heart level.
4. IF you cannot stop the bleeding by this method, ONLY THEN is it necessary to apply a tourniquet. To prevent the limb under the tourniquet from dying, loosen it every 45-60 minutes (the time it takes to smoke a Cambodian rural cigarette).

    One of the issues that was hard to resolve was whether to teach first aid or not. Tourniquets were part of the Khmer folk lore and are used resulting in many amputations. higher than needed ( there is a huge difference in the quality of life as a below knee BK amputee compared to an above knee AK). Another issue was the time before you loosen the tourniquet for. Because in Cambodia it may take days to reach a medical center they realistically cannot loosen it every 15-20 minutes, so we recommended 45-60 minutes.
 

CAMBODIAN MINE AWARENESS TEACHERS CURRICULUM
      Part 13

      RETRACING

      MAIN POINTS
      - Stop walking. 
      - Retrace your footsteps if you can see them properly. 
      - If you cannot see them then wait for help, unless you have practiced how to prod correctly. 
      - Mark the mined area and report the location to authorities. 
       

      XVI


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