ECAS is a 2.5-day seminar for sailors. Living on the sea or playing on the water presents a unique set of challenges if a medical emergency arises. Sailors around the world have a standard way of calling for help, “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday.” If this came over your radio, human decency and ship courtesy demands that anyone close enough to help does so. If a May Day call involved a medical emergency, how much could you help? If that emergency was on your own boat, would you know what to do? Can you accurately assess the patient? Can you relay that information over the radio in a meaningful way? Do you know what on your boat will make a splint? Or a back board? Do you know a pressure point to stop an arterial bleed?

The ECAS program was created out of a need. Sailors, cruisers, divers, and other water adventurers often find that standard first aid training is inadequate to deal with the long-term care needs and medical emergencies that occur while at sea, beyond the range of an effective “911” system.

This class will include the basics of emergency care; airway management, bleeding control, vital signs, head to toe evaluation and CPR review. In addition, we will look at long-term wound care, infection management, spinal assessment, moving injured patients, marine envenomation, hypo/hyperthermia, oxygen therapy, vertigo (sea sickness), drowning/near drowning, as well as the psychological aspects of emergency care for both patient and rescuer. We will also cover documentation and terminology for effective radio communication and first aid kit necessities.