First aid is the prompt treatment provided to a person who is seriously ill or injured. It is in everyone’s best interest to understand key fundamentals since they truly could save lives. The following list of guidelines covers typical circumstances and accepted standards:
Remain calm
Stress impairs judgment and leads to errors. Even if you find yourself in a position for which you are unprepared, there is typically something nice you can do. It is much simpler to achieve this when you know what you’re doing. Instead of allowing oneself to have a negative emotional reaction, concentrate on that. When you’re no longer required, you can allow yourself to feel whatever you need to feel.
Do no harm
This does not imply inaction. This means that before taking any action, be sure that it won’t worsen the situation. Don’t perform a certain intervention if you are unsure of its potential for harm. Therefore, unless doing so puts the trauma victim in grave danger, never transfer a trauma victim, especially one who is unconscious (and by the way, cars rarely explode).
Remove any embedded objects (such as knives or nails) carefully to avoid further injury (e.g., increased bleeding). Furthermore, you can always ask for assistance if there is nothing you can think of doing on your own. In fact, if you’re by yourself and your only option is to abandon the victim, do it.
CPR is capable of saving lives
Most people, though, get it wrong. First, research indicates that providing victims with breath has little survival advantage over simply performing chest compressions. Second, the majority of people don’t compress rapidly enough or deeply enough. Aim for 100 compressions each minute and make sure to imprint the chest. It exceeds one compression per second.
CPR should exhaust you if you’re performing it properly. Additionally, be aware that ventricular fibrillation, the most common cause of unconsciousness in a patient experiencing a heart attack, cannot be reversed by CPR. That requires either electricity (i.e., defibrillation) or medicine. However, until paramedics arrive, CPR serves as a bridge to keep crucial organs oxygenated.
Time counts
The technology we now have to treat heart attacks and strokes, two of the most prevalent and life-threatening medical issues in America, has advanced to an astounding degree, but patients frequently do poorly because they don’t have access to that technology in a timely manner. For instance, the first 30 minutes after the onset of symptoms are when there is the highest chance of dying from a heart attack.
Most people frequently pass that crucial point by the time they even acknowledge to themselves that the chest pain they are experiencing might be connected to their heart. Refrain from dismissing chest pain if it occurs in someone you know or who has risk factors for heart disease. As soon as you can, head to the closest emergency room.
A stroke is a true emergency if someone experiences focal weakness in their face, arms, or legs, as well as difficulties speaking or smiling. The amount of time that symptoms have been present determines the current therapy methods. The likelihood that the finest medicines can be used increases with the length of time.
Hydrogen peroxide
Tissue finds it more irritating than useful. The best remedies are water, soap, and some sort of bandage.
Pulse rate
The pulse rate and the amount of time it takes for consciousness to recover are the two most helpful indicators that can tell doctors what happened when someone passes out but keeps breathing and has a healthy pulse.
Blood pressure
Rarely does high blood pressure immediately become hazardous. First off, a typical and reasonable response to physical activity, stress, fear, and discomfort is elevated blood pressure. Many of the patients I monitor for high blood pressure become concerned when their numbers begin to rise. However, the harm caused by high blood pressure to the human body occurs over a period of years, if not decades.
There is such a thing as a hypertensive emergency, which occurs when the blood pressure is higher than about 200/120. However, it’s quite uncommon to see readings that high, and even then, in the absence of symptoms (headache, visual disturbances, nausea, and confusion), it’s considered a hypertensive urgency, meaning you have 24 hours to bring the pressure down before you run into trouble.
Open the airways
An individual’s airway is open if they can speak or cough. indicating that they are not choking. If someone says, “I’m choking,” don’t Heimlich them.
Seizures
Many seizures are not life-threatening. Injury from uncontrolled, intense muscle contractions poses the greatest risk to someone experiencing a seizure. Don’t try to move the tongue of someone who is seizing. They won’t swallow it, so don’t worry.
Time the seizure and remove any items that they might harm themselves with, such as their glasses from their heads. “Post ictal confusion” is a period of bewilderment that frequently follows a genuine seizure. The best therapy is for you to reassure them that they are fine throughout this time.
Drowning
The appearance of drowning is not what you may expect. One reason is that drowning victims are physiologically unable to scream for rescue. In actuality, a person who is genuinely drowning rarely moves at all (I strongly encourage everyone to click on this link to learn more about how to recognize what drowning does look like).