First Aid

The emergency first aid information in this section is intended to help you keep an accident victim alive until trained medical personnel arrive, or until that person can be transported to a medical facility. Failure to provide immediate first aid during the critical first minutes after an injury or accident could result in an easily preventable death.

USE CAUTION in any attempted rescue – It does no one any good if you become a victim yourself.

If you are the first person to arrive at the scene of an emergency, you may be in a position to save someone's life. The actions you take during the first few seconds to minutes are critical. But you cannot be helpful if you are in a panic, because you won't think clearly, and valuable time will be wasted. That's why teachers of first aid often say the first step is, "Check your own pulse." Try to remain calm, breathe, detach yourself from the emotional turmoil at hand, and approach the victim with clarity of purpose.

There are three basic causes of severe injury or death that must be immediately addressed in every emergency. How to evaluate a victim for each of these problems will be discussed in more detail in the pages that follow:

BREATHING PROBLEMS: Lack of oxygen intake (through blockage of an airway, or through inadequate breathing) can lead to brain damage or death in just a few minutes.

BLEEDING PROBLEMS: The function of blood is to carry oxygen to all the tissues and organs of our bodies. Without oxygen, tissues die. For example, a "heart attack" is the common term for the medical entity "myocardial infarction"-which literally means "heart death." In the same way, a "stroke" is simply the death of part of the brain, due to lack of oxygen. Without adequate blood flow, there cannot be adequate oxygen flow, so preventing blood loss is critical.

SHOCK: Shock results when the functions of the body shut down in an attempt to protect themselves from injury or death. Unfortunately, shock is often counterproductive, and unless it is prevented or treated, death may result even though the injury might not otherwise be fatal.

In a mass disaster situation (such as a terrorist attack or an industrial accident) it is likely that a victim will have more than one type of serious injury. Look for and be prepared to treat the victim for multiple injuries.