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Training From America's Army Game Saved a Life
russoc4 writes "Most people who play the United States Army's freeware FPS sit through training simulations so that they may be able to get into the action and rack up some kills. The medic skills learned in the training allow you to heal teammates in the game, but it seems that they also apply in real life situations. According to Wired and the America's Army forums, 'a North Carolina man who saw an SUV flip and roll on a highway last November was able to provide medical aid to the victims with skills he learned from the America's Army.'" See? We learn things from videogames! Feign Death works sometimes, too.
Suck on THAT Jack Thompson.
Now I have a valid excuse to play violent games! Take that you game banning politicians!
And yes I am being serious.
Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity
See? Things like this are what make that MMO that NASA's considering developing less-than-ridiculous.
And if anything goes wrong, the guy AND the game makers will get sued for millions.
To me this seems like a propaganda story. Especially considering that the article mentions that this story comes from a press release.
All in the name of making an army recruitment tool seem like a benefit to society.
The other day it was late at night and my car broke down. I had forgotten my phone and wallet, and needless to say I was SOL. But thanks to my "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" training, I quickly dispatched an old lady in a station wagon who stopped at a nearby traffic signal, and drove home. Thanks "Rock Star", you saved my a$$.
It's usually pretty tough to sue someone for trying to help out.
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Everyone should know basic first aid techniques. They aren't difficult and can make a big difference in an emergency.
At least learn how to control bleeding and perform CPR.
The best thing to do is to stop, observe, and call 911. Trying to do anything else in a car accident situation is almost always going to cause more harm than good.
And in the US, most states have good samaritan laws so that if you are acting in good faith, you are not liable. A few places have laws that compel you to render assistance as well, but they are normally only enforced on TV shows like Seinfeld.
He didn't go through sniper school too
http://greenobyl.com/ please.... think of the children!!
We have Good Samaritan laws that shield good samaritans acting in good faith from lawsuits.
-- My Sig is a P228.
The training missions to be able to play as a medic are simulated first aid lectures. They have nothing to do with gameplay itself. It's an illustrated presentation and goes through things like how to dress a wound. Having gone through them, this news does make sense. I have to say that the AA training gave me a much better idea about how to approach somebody in shock than I knew before. I can only assume that the lessons are accurate.
We have issued propaganda, that validates the production of our propaganda!
Now, "this is your rifle..."
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Human beings learn things in lots of different ways. People learn both correct and incorrect behaviour from watching TV for example. The trick is to learning how realistic the information and techniques you are getting are, and when they can actually be applied.
For example it's easy to learn the wrong thing from a TV show. Try and play MacGyver for instance and things might go pear shaped. More subtley here in Australia the number for emergency services is 000, but we have had critically ill people receive delayed medical care because people have dialed 911 after watching American TV.
Why should games be any different? They're interactive so if the simulation is accurate they should be better at teaching us how to react to a situation.
However like television, usually the primary reason people play games is for entertainment not education. I'm not a betting man but I'd be surprised if you couldn't pick up many many more skills by doing a weekend firstaid course than by playing Americas Army.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
For those of you who haven't played AA, Medic Training consists of walking into a classroom, sitting down, looking at the screen, and listening to a lecture. Then you take a multiple choice exam. So, there's a real possibility of learning something.
Similar thing happened to me but the outcome was not so good.
A buddy of mine got knocked out when I threw a first aid kit and it hit him on the head.
And the shock paddles only made things worse.
If flesh eating zombies attack my house they're seriously fucked.
The above isn't as much care as a paramedic or hospital can provide, but good initial response is critical for the safety and health of the victim. If your airway is blocked and you are not breathing, you're facing brain damage within 5 minutes. If you get moved improperly when you have a spinal injury, you're more likely to end up in a wheelchair.
I spent 3 years as a volunteer ski patroller, and 3 years as a volunteer firefighter for a department which averaged a few first medical response calls a week. Sure, I've received a lot more training in the past than a one day course can provide - just my spinal management ticket alone took me a weekend. However, anyone with a recent one day first aid training course can be ready to stop a major bleed, apply CPR, and monitor vital signs so that paramedics know if the victim's condition is deteriorating. Most importantly of all, a trained individual can prevent some stupid and misguided untrained know-it-all (and many such idiots exist) from doing something stupid such as improperly moving a patient with a potential spinal injury, etc.
I strongly believe that everyone should at least have a basic level of first aid training, and carry a small first aid kit in their cars. I carry a lot more than a basic kit, but it provides me a higher level of comfort knowing that I'll have both the tools and the training that I need in event of an emergency. There is nothing sadder to hear than the story of parents whose child died from an incident that basic first aid training could have managed, but they either stood by helplessly, or even worse, exacerbated the situation with their improper efforts to help their child.
Slashdot - the place where you can look like a genius by restating the obvious
It fostered in me a desire to obtain basic medical skills. Just as it is helpful to be able to revive your comrad in the game, I thought it would be helpful to be able to render real aid to a person in an accident.
So I registered for an EMT-B certification class and after about 120 hours of class time and 24 hours of on-site training, I was qualified to take the exam and am now a certified EMT-B and considering pursing the certification all the way up to paramedic.
I will do it only on a volunteer basis - I already have a profession - but it is a worthwile skill and I am glad I obtained it.
Paxton Galvanek pulled one of the passengers out of the smoking car, then found another bleeding heavily from his hand where his fingers had been lost during the crash.
A very, very VERY important rule regarding assisting someone who is injured, and this applies to bike, pedestrian vs. car, car vs. car, and motorcycle accidents:
Unless someone's life is in IMMEDIATE danger, do not move them, especially if they are unconscious. Immediate danger means the car is on fire, for example, AND unconscious. If the are in immediate danger but conscious, ASSIST them (ie, help open the door or smash the window, cut the belt, etc but let them move themselves. If they are in no danger but conscious, encourage them to LIE STILL; shock keeps them from feeling injuries. Leave everything you can to those trained in what to do.
For example, the first thing bystanders LOVE to do is rip off a motorcyclist's helmet. Helmets are pretty snug and this causes a lot of pull on their neck/spine. If they've' got a neck/back injury, you can turn them from "I'll walk in a few weeks after an operation" to "I'll be in a wheelchair the rest of my life because you ripped apart my spinal cord trying to be a hero." The rule for helmets is simple: if they're breathing, it stays on. If they stop breathing, that takes priority. Some motorcycle riders are now installing inflatable bladders that harmlessly lift the helmet off their head and have a blood-pressure-cuff inflator attachment for the crew to use, and some ambulances are equipping themselves with the version that can be slipped up into the helmet.
Many riders put labels on their helmets that say "DO NOT REMOVE MY HELMET UNLESS I HAVE STOPPED BREATHING" because all of the idiot bystanders who think it's important to do.
Also: fire extinguishers are meant to be used to save people, not save cars. If you have someone trying to get out of a car that has a small fire in the engine compartment and you use up the extinguisher trying to put it out- now you have someone still in the car, a fire, and an empty extinguisher. If you have one, use it to protect people in the car should the fire spread far enough while someone else assists the occupants in getting out.
Please help metamoderate.
Everything I needed to know about warfare and life I learned from Metal Gear. Yeah, that's right. The original.
You can infiltrate classified military installations by disguising yourself as an innocuous cardboard box. There's nothing more indispensable than a pack of smokes. And nothing in the entire arsenal of the Military-Industrial Complex is as singularly lethal as a ninja.
"Doctor, aren't you going to help?"
"No, ma'am, some guy on slashdot said I didn't have to."
- RG>
Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
IF you've been taught proper procedures though, the helmet will come off if the person is unconscious; you need access to the airway whether they're breathing or not.
Why the hell would anyone on the side of the road need "access to someone's airway" if they're breathing, and said bystanders have no medical equipment (unless, of course, there's a Rescue Rodger on the scene.) The only reason you remove a person's helmet if they've been in a motorcycle crash is because you need to perform CPR to keep them alive. The risk of complete paralyzing them otherwise is far too great.
Please help metamoderate.
Is the argument then that military recruiting is a detriment to society? Would you prefer conscription?
don't take first aid advice from /. comments. go get training or information from a more reputable source
note: +5 informative doesn't mean it's reputable
http://greenobyl.com/ please.... think of the children!!
What they really mean by "America's Army saved a life" is that someone played the game and, based on that experience, realized how dumb it would be to enlist in the U.S. Army just to die for some greedy politicians' personal crusade.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
Mod this guy up he has a valid point. What was 911 taken already? If I was on vacation in Australia and there was an emergency I would dial 911... how the hell would I know about 000?
There should be a single International standard. However take responsibility for your own actions. Traveling internationally and assuming that things work the same way overseas as they do in your country is dangerously stupid. Many countries distribute literature at the airports (welcome to such and such country) that outlines what the emergency numbers are, often outline unusual laws etc. For example if you came to Australia and tried to drive on the right hand side of the street, you'd probably be arrested and "sorry Id didn't know" would be a very bad answer.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Don't worry if you missed it. It will be back in a couple of days...
It depends on the situation. If your manual doesn't explain that, then the organizations that wrote the manual need to write a better manual. (No disrespect to the groups you named, whose training has undeniably saved a lot of lives over the years.)
A person who is unconscious due to drowning, poisoning (including alcohol overdose), or unknown reasons that do not obviously result from trauma (probably some internal medical condition, cardiovascular or neurological) certainly should be should be placed in the recovery position. But a person who is unconscious due to trauma, such as a motor vehicle accident or a fall or a blow to the head, emphatically should not be moved without proper equipment -- at least a cervical collar, preferably c-collar and backboard -- used by trained medical personnel. It takes a fair amount of trauma to the brain to cause unconsciousness in an otherwise healthy person, and the chance that the trauma involved also caused some spinal injury is very, very high.
I'm speaking here as a former USAF medic and civilian EMT with ten years' experience in emergency response. If you don't believe me, ask any ER/Casualty doctor or nurse -- I guarantee you'll get the same answer.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
I've heard a ton of stories about lawsuits against doctors / hospitals due to negligance or whatever the lawyer wants to call it.
If I were a doctor in America I wouldn't go near a dying patient. I'd be bound to get the blame. It's that old adage, you can do a thousand rights, but one wrong and you are disgraced. Sadly, in todays world, I'd probably just walk on by lest there be a lawsuit if I tried to help and failed.
You know a lot of schools, and workplaces aren't even allowed to stock standard first aid plasters - just in case someone is allergic.
Yeah, thanks politics, you've done a great service. To the undertaker business.
Nice post, but I suspect that the GP's point was that *untrained* people would likely cause more harm than good. He's probably right, I don't have any statistics, but it's shocking how few people really know the rudiments of first aid (and keep up on classes which are offered free in many places). Anyway I did want to add something to your response:
I also feel that first aid courses that put a serious focus on vehicle accident response should be a mandatory part of obtaining a driver's license. I'd consider the first aid kit optional perhaps, but anyone who took the courses seriously would have one anyway.
If for no other reason (and there are others, such as getting more people trained, and I feel the same as you about that), it might make a lot of people think more seriously about just how dangerous the vehicle they are driving can be. I think we can all agree there are entirely too many ignorant people out on the roads.
SB
It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
Most people here might not realize that the First Aid training in America's Army is quite a bit more than you'd expect to see in a game. In order to qualify for certain ranks, the player must sit through a twenty or so minute lecture to provide them with some basic training on the subject. Following the lecture, a quiz is given, and in order to qualify, the player must "pass" the test. The game has multiple training "classes", with subjects including on friendly and enemy vehicles, first aid, and a few other Army-related topics I don't remember off the top of my head. It's not like he played a Medic in the game, running around throwing first aid kits at the wounded, and that let him perform well in this real-life situation. He participated in a bit of scripted training in game, with the dialogue being written based on real-life Army training. Some kid feigning death because he saw it work in World of Warcraft is just as silly as someone trying to break a brick wall by jumping headfirst into it. If you're kid is being "educated" by games that don't attempt to teach anything, perhaps your kids should be reading a few more books and playing a few less games? This story is a great example of how games can be used for educational purposes, reaching an audience that might normally not care about the subject or be interested in learning.
Do not shoot the CO.
OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games
This is why you should not take first aid device from a video game or /.
Never apply a tourniquet unless the bleeding is 1) immediately life threatening and 2) cannot be controlled in any other way. The best way to control bleeding is direct pressure - which can stop 99% of significant external bleeding. Tourniquets not only cause nerve damage, but if there is an amputation, they can cause ischemic damage to healthy tissue which may decrease the chance of a successful reattachment or make the ultimate amputation worse.
And don't worry, there is a law in emergency medicine: All bleeding stops eventually.
Not to mention that pulling somebody from a car without first figuring out what their injuries are is a fucking bad idea, unless the car is about to explode (hint: it isn't, unless you're in a movie).