Kenicia Francis
The Deputy Emergency Medical Technician in charge of Carnival, Brandon Browne, shared some general safety tips for people taking part in the grand parade on Monday and Tuesday.
“If somebody’s feeling sick, like heat exhaustion, intoxication, those kind of things, they can come to the Cool-Out Spot. It’s located on University Drive, next to the UWI Open Campus, or right opposite the John E St Luce Conference Center on Factory Road, and it’s active a few hours before any parade and a few hours after. So, like for j’ouvert , it’s going to be active from 3 am until about 12 pm. Then, for last lap, it’s going to be active from about 12 pm to 12 am,” he said.
“We’ll provide treatment. However, things such as falls, stabbings, any form of trauma, we don’t manage that. We take those straight to the hospital. So if somebody’s feeling exhausted, if anyone thinks their friend had too much to drink and they need to cool-out a little bit, just bring your friend up to the Cool-Out Spot. When the parade or whatever event is finished, then they can come and pick-up their friend. If they don’t come for them, then we’ll take them up to the hospital because our stop closes at a certain time, depending on which event is going on.”
Brown additionally went into details about how to help a friend who’s feeling sick, and the best way to stay hydrated in the heat.
“If somebody’s starting to feel really intoxicated or exhausted, don’t push it. Pull them on the side of the road in a cool area and just have them cool-out a bit. What we have seen is that friends would encourage their friends to ‘push through’ or ‘don’t be soft, take one more drink’ or ‘let’s continue along the road’. Just pause for a brief moment and allow the person to catch his or herself.”
“The sun is very hot, so it’s very important for people to hydrate themselves. Hydration is best done when you do it over a period of time. Let’s say you’re going to attend the parade tomorrow, you should start drinking your water from today. That’s how the body works. If the parade is today and you just intake a big amount of water, then your body is going to take what it wants and just output all the rest. You receive maximum benefits when you do it over a period of time. So, everybody preparing for the parade on Monday and Tuesday, should probably start hydrating from now.”
“The thing about alcohol is that for every one cup of alcohol that you drink, you’ll need three cups of water to rehydrate that. Same thing with coffee. If people are drinking coffee to stay up for j’ouvert and they’re going to put alcohol in it, that’s two times the effect. So, that’s six cups of water to rehydrate what you would have lost from consuming those two.”
He also shared some tips for Rise: “Don’t have everybody drinking, getting really intoxicated because if an emergency arises, somebody needs to be coherent so that they can know to make the call or contact the relevant assistance. We don’t want everybody in the group to be disoriented. Secondly, you shouldn’t be accepting drinks from people that you don’t know. I think most people should know this, but I’ll reiterate that, because you don’t know what’s in the drink and you don’t know how you’ll respond to those substances.”
“And again, once you feel like you’re reaching your limit, or you’re starting to feel disoriented, maybe it’s time to back-off of the alcohol and get some water and cool-out a bit until you feel like you’re coming back to normal again.
I just want to encourage everybody to have a safe carnival, hydrate, have fun. And if you need medical assistance, don’t be afraid to reach out and call 911. We’re here to serve you.”
