For a while now, I have thought about first aid
And how important it is
For every one of us to know.
Photo credit: Verywell Family
But I had never known how to write about it…
So, I looked around my social media and
I was able to get in touch with someone I follow there, Dr. Innocent Acan!
Who better to ask than an actual medical doctor, right?
Dr. Acan happens to be a writer, just like me
And I approached her in that same capacity
So, a few days ago, I ask her for help on this
And she was so helpful with her knowledge and time
And here is what she had to say.
I’ll be directly quoting her from here on out…
- “With first aid, the most important thing is to call for help first. This means calling one or two other people to come and help as soon as you’ve noticed a person needs help.
During this process, you should also contact whatever transportation to a medical center is available, preferably an ambulance
After that, we follow the ABCDEs of first aid.
- Is the person’s airway clear? Is there something choking them and keeping them from breathing? Is their tongue blocking their airway? At this point, you remove whatever is blocking the person’s airway. To prevent the tongue from falling back and blocking the airway, we usually place patients on their backs on a flat surface, and we tilt their head back.
Photo credit: Basic Airway – Practice Paramedicine
B- Breathing. Is the person breathing? You can check this by placing a mirror under their nose to check for condensation on the mirror, or by looking at their chest to see if it’s moving. If it’s not, you need to start mouth to mouth. You want to give a breath every 5 to 6 seconds. The most important thing with an unconscious person is making sure their brain continues to receive oxygen.
C- Circulation. Is the person bleeding anywhere? Try and stop the bleeding by applying pressure over the wound or applying a tourniquet
This is also the stage at which you check for a pulse, which you can check on the inner wrist, or at the point where the curve of the jaw meets the neck. You can also try listening for the heartbeat with your ear to their chest. If there is no pulse, you have to start CPR. This involves giving 30 chest compressions, followed by 2 rescue breaths, in a continuous cycle until the patient gets medical attention or until you get a good pulse.
D – Disability. Here, you want to properly check the person’s consciousness level. Can they respond if you try to call them? Are they having convulsions?
If the patient is convulsing, the best position to put them in is the recovery position, to keep them from choking on their own saliva or vomit. Don’t try to put something like a spoon in their mouth to keep them from biting their tongue – it may cause worse injury to them. We would rather treat a bitten tongue than a broken tooth.
Photo credit: First Aid For Free
E – Expose. If the person is wearing any too tight clothing, take it off or loosen it.
Who needs first aid? Anyone who has sustained any form of serious injury, tbh. These same tenets of first aid can be applied to anyone from accident victims, to heart attack victims, to asthma patients
For head injury patients, one of the foremost things you want to do is get them on their back and stabilize their neck by holding on to their head and keeping it from moving. We worry a lot about spinal injury in such patients, and any movements can worsen things and cause death.
The rest of the first aid remains the same in a head injury patient.
Photo credit: YouTube
~ If you can, get to learn how first aid is actually administered. You never know when it will come in handy!!! ~