Members of the Royal Bermuda Regiment were trained in CPR, special rescues and other emergency procedures during a two-week programme put on by St John Ambulance Bermuda.

A total of 12 people from the regiment’s medics, coastguard and Junior Leaders units received hands-on and theory-based instruction on the emergency medical responder course.

The programme at St John Ambulance headquarters on Point Finger Road addressed how to lift and move patients, bleeding, shock and soft tissue injuries, CPR and airway management, special rescue and vehicle extraction, and environmental injuries.

Josh Correia, a St John Ambulance instructor and licensed paramedic, noted the soldiers’ progress throughout the course.

He said: “These students can now proficiently perform an appropriate medical and trauma assessment on both a simple trauma and a multi-system trauma casualty to provide the necessary care to get the patient, hopefully, to definitive treatment, such as a trauma surgery centre.”

Mr Correia added: “This course provides them with a solid framework of what they need to know in order to provide emergency care to help prevent further injury or death.

“Once they have this framework, they will be able to take that into the field and apply it to the different situations and scenarios that they may be exposed to.”

Soldiers were tested on their knowledge on Saturday.

Private Ryan Gibbons, an RBR medic, said: “[The course] is instrumental to what I want to do and it makes me a better medic, it makes me a better citizen and more able to help in my jobs outside the regiment and even among family.”

Private Stevontae Somersall-Ahknahton, of the RBR Coastguard, said the course gave her “increased confidence and knowledge” about how to help someone in distress on the water.

She added: “Anywhere I go, even as a mother with my child or at my work as a bar tender, I know that if something was to happen, I have the knowledge to assist.”