Student first aider responds to Trooping the Colour emergency

A St Catharine’s student volunteering with St John Ambulance (SJA) provided vital first aid to spectators when parts of the stand collapsed at the Major General’s Review of the Trooping the Colour at Horse Guards Parade in central London on 21 May. A London Ambulance Service spokesman said:

“We worked alongside SJA volunteers to treat five people at the scene. We took one patient to a major trauma centre as a priority. SJA took a second patient to a major trauma centre as a priority. We discharged three patients at the scene.”

Emma Dinnage, a final-year Natural Sciences undergraduate and an advanced first aider, has been assigned to help SJA provide medical cover across a number of events leading up to the Platinum Jubilee weekend in June. She was patrolling the Trooping the Colour event last Saturday with another SJA volunteer, a first aid kit and a wheelchair when the emergency unfolded:

“Initially, when the first part of the stand gave way, I wasn’t involved but I could hear what was happening on my radio and could see crews entering the area on the other side of Horse Guards Parade. That changed when a second part collapsed nearby: army personnel immediately called us both over and I was enlisted by the paramedics on scene to transport people who could be moved to the treatment centre, keeping them calm and comfortable in our wheelchair as we travelled halfway up the Mall. Working in an unfamiliar surrounding with crowds of people was challenging but I’m proud that we were able to give people the first aid they needed.”

One of the spectators that Emma helped care for wrote to SJA after the event. She said:

“I would like to express my thanks to the SJA team in attendance at the event. They all acted with great professionalism and kindness and we are grateful to them.”

Emma is an experienced SJA volunteer who has already logged well over 1,000 hours of service, including at major sporting and ceremonial events:

“I have honestly lost count of how many events I’ve covered with SJA and, based on past experience, I was fully expecting our medical provision at the Trooping the Colour to include minor injuries and ailments like blisters, dehydration and perhaps even fainting. There’s usually a deal of waiting around at events like this so I’d thought I might be able to get some work done on my dissertation – which never happened of course!”

The colour is trooped for The Queen’s Birthday Parade on 2 June and there are ordinarily two reviews scheduled prior to the main event: the Major General’s Review that Emma attended, followed by the Colonel’s Review on 28 May. All three events are ticketed so members of the public can watch parades of up to 1,450 soldiers from the Household Division and The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, and up to 400 musicians from the Massed Bands.

Emma returned to duty with SJA on 22 and 25 May at special garden parties held for staff of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, and at the second Trooping the Colour rehearsal on 28 May known as The Colonel’s Review. She is also scheduled to volunteer at the Platinum Party at the Palace on 4 June and the Platinum Jubilee Pageant on 5 June.

Emma has been offered confidential welfare support by SJA and also St Catharine’s own Health & Wellbeing team.