Student teacher awarded for bravery after horror school camp

While studying at university to become a teacher, Millie Dickenson endured more than most during her first major practical teaching placement. The practical experience included a week-long outdoor education camp with students at Rottnest Island, and their second day on the island is one that Millie will never forget.

“The weather was atrocious! It was pouring down with rain with around 45-knot winds. When the rain had stopped, the other prac student, myself and one of the teachers decided it would be a good idea to take the students on a bike ride as they hadn’t really done much that day.”

Headed to Little Salmon Bay, strong winds were making the going tough. Students were given the option of stopping at another bay they had reached but voted to keep going, so Millie set off with the front group of students.

When they reached Little Salmon Bay, Millie received a phone call from the other prac student who was at the back of the group with the teacher. Between the strong winds and patchy mobile signal, Millie had difficulty making out what he was saying but eventually heard that the teacher was having a suspected heart attack.

The group made their way back to meet up with the other student teacher at Parker Point. The teacher who had suffered the heart attack had been taken away in an ambulance, and the other student teacher was headed back to town to find the other teacher on the camp.

“I was then left with 24 students and had to get them all safely back to camp,” said Millie. “As we were riding, I came around a bend and heard ‘Miss! Miss! Help!’. I saw several bikes on the floor with one student lying on the ground.

“There was blood everywhere, all over the road and the student. One of the girls had fallen off her bike coming down the hill at speed. She had severely torn up her knee to the point where blood was gushing out, she had scraped the very top of her left ring finger off, her left shoulder was scratched up and bleeding as well as her face.

“I’ve had to deal with injuries in the past, being a netballer myself and going through injuries, but I’d never seen that amount of blood.”

Millie looked through the small first aid kit she had been given and realised she would have to improvise, as the large first aid kit was with the teacher who had just had the heart attack. Millie had one of the students call the island’s nursing post while she worked quickly to clean the girl’s wounds and used a sling to wrap around the student’s knee. She then used a period pad to patch up the girl’s shoulder, crediting her netball days for the idea.

“My netball brain kind of switched on and I remembered I used to use sanitary pads to strap up my blisters on my feet. The nurse actually applauded me for how well I patched her up using the resources that I had.”

After the girl had been taken to the nurse's post by the ranger, Millie escorted the rest of the students back to camp. Ferry services were cancelled due to the weather so the girl was later put in emergency accommodation with Millie. After bleeding through the first set of bandages, Millie was asked to monitor the girl every hour or so throughout the night before she was transported back to Perth the following morning.

Despite only being a teacher in training, not yet a fully qualified teacher, Millie demonstrated exceptional care and professionalism in her response. She was able to remain calm in a stressful situation and use her first aid skills to help the student. Millie was awarded with a Gold Star Bravery Award for her actions that day, and says it came as a surprise.

“I was honestly over the moon. I was very shocked, very surprised, but it was so heartwarming to know that my efforts hadn’t been unnoticed. It’s really lovely to see that people are acknowledging the efforts of other people.”

Millie also thinks it’s important for everyone, including children at school, to learn basic first aid.

“Even if you’re still at school, having that basic first aid knowledge would be super beneficial down the track. None of these students knew any first aid at all. It would have really benefited me if they all had a little bit of prior knowledge just so they would have been able to assist me a little bit more in that situation.”

If learning first aid is something that’s still on your ‘to do’ list, enrol in a course today – it could save someone’s life!