Have you gone through any incidents in life in which you have gone through any emergency, injury or someone near to you has gone through any health emergency? If yes, then you must have gone through the emotion of feeling helpless at that time till someone takes you or your near pone to the hospital or till some medical assistance arrives.
Importance of First Aid
We realize the importance of first aid in situations like the one described above. Having someone with a training of first aid seems to be a great help in situations like this. You feel blessed to have people like these at the place of accidents. They not only give you first aid but also help you to calm down and relax till some medical assistance arrives.
With the rate of accidents and health emergencies increasing day by day, the importance and need of first aid training are also becoming a focus. Many people now prefer to do some short courses. There are many institutes who offer first aid certifications. There are also online courses of first aid available for the ease of those who cannot manage to attend physical classes. You can check out Mississauga First Aid Courses to learn more.
First aid training can help save many lives. One should at least try to learn the basics of first aid training in Norwich if not a professional course. There are also situations where you cannot wait for the arrival of medical assistance and need to act fast to save the life of the victim. Here, your training can work wonders.
Basic First Aid Procedures
This article aims to explain the basic steps of first aid in case of various emergencies. If you do not have official first aid training, still you can use basic life saving tips to help someone in dire need. Following is a list of some basic first aid procedures that can help a lot in emergency situations.
- Unconscious or Unresponsive Victim
In the first case we will describe what you can do if you find a person unresponsive or unconscious. In this case, basic principle of first aid that applies is called ABC.
A – AIRWAY: if someone is not breathing, try to clear the airway first.
B – BREATHING: if the airway is clear, but still the patient is not responding, try to give artificial breathing
C – CIRCULATION: check the pulse of the victim. If it is dropping, do chest compression to keep the blood circulating.
- When to Perform CPR And AEDs
CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. It is the most important procedure to perform if you have found the victim in a cardiac arrest. CPR is done by performing chest compressions and giving artificial breathing.
AEDs are a device used to give CPR in case of cardiac arrest. They are easily available at any drugstores. If not available then do not delay. Perform CPR by yourself.
- Bleeding
If you want to find out that how serious the injury is, you can tell it by watching the color of the blood and the way it is leaving the body.
If blood is coming out like a trickle, it means it is coming out of the small blood vessels called capillaries.
A blood that is very dark red in color and is flowing constantly is the blood coming out of the veins. It can be mild or severe.
A bright red colored blood that flows out in the form of a burst is the blood coming out of the arteries. That is the sign of some serious injury.
- Choking
Choking is a type of serious breathing hazard that can even cause death. Signs of choking include gasping, blue face, not able to talk, grabbing the throat etc. To help someone who is choking, perform Heimlich maneuver. It is a procedure in which you perform thrusts on the abdominal area. This will help to extricate anything that is causing the person to choke. But this should only be performed on the person who is actually choking. Someone we misunderstand someone for choking but actually they may be suffering from something else.
- Burns
Burns are divided into degrees depending upon their severity.
First degree burn: this burn only affects the outer layer of the skin. Symptoms include swelling and redness of the skin. Simply wash area with running water. Do not apply ice.
Second degree burn: this burn affects two layers of skin and causes blistering, redness and swelling. It can be treated by use of an ointment and covering it later with gauze.
Third degree burn: this burn affects deep layers of the skin and causes the skin to appear white or black in color. The skin also feels numb. Try to get immediate medical help in this case.
- Nosebleeds
Nosebleeds are caused by many reasons. Some of them are nose picking, high altitude, dry air, trauma to the nose etc. Nosebleed can be stopped by following some simple steps. Lean the person forward and pinch the nose where the nose bridge ends. Check after every 5 minutes. If bleeding does not stop then continue pinching or use a cold pack.
Final Thoughts
Basic first aid procedures are proved to be great help in many emergency situations. Everyone should try to get some kind of basic pediatric first aid knowledge so that they can help other in any kind of health emergencies or accidents.
