I had to get up at such an ungodly hour today - honestly, anything before 9am is such a pain! >_< Especially given the fact that I'm supposed to be on my spring break. Anyway, it was all for a good cause, I had my first-aid training today in Parkville just down the road from my campus.
Not everything I learned was new, but it was good emphasis on what's most important while performing first-aid. And thus I present to you the Basics of First Aid (DRABCD):
Danger - When you're at a scene where there's been a fire or traffic accident, the first thing you think about is whether there are casualties, & if there are, you'll probably be inclined to help them. Our instructor was emphasizing on the importance of assessing the scene for anything that may threaten the safety of yourself & those around the scene, & steer clear of it. Gather information so you can make decisions. If there's a fire & you hear screams from within the place, would you run into it without considering the danger you're putting yourself in?
Tough decision, especially if the person trapped in there is a loved one or someone you know, whereby emotions will come into play. We were advised to be logical & make informed decisions - if you run into the fire unprepared chances are you and the person trapped in there might not make it out alive. Obviously you would've already called emergency services for the fire truck, so wait for them to take action because they are trained to deal with dangerous situations involving fires, not you!
Generally you would not move a casualty unless there is an absolute hazard which you cannot control, such as fires or fumes. Hazards can be anything from fire, smoke, fallen power lines, to chemicals & bombs. Don't forget that blood is a hazard too!
Response - Check the casualty for response; this is absolutely essential because you want to ascertain their state of consciousness. *Remember, always tend to the unconscious patient first!* Just place your hands on their shoulders & speak to them loudly - there is something called the COWS method, whereby you say: "Can you hear me", "Open your eyes", "What's your name", & "Squeeze my hand". If no response, assume that they're unconscious.
If they're conscious, proceed to check their condition & decide if you need to send for help or call 000. Stay with them until help arrives.
If they're unconscious, follow the next step!
Airways - Open airway is absolutely essential because they need to breathe to stay alive! There is a technique to check the airways, whereby you place your hand on the forehead & using a pistol grip (thumb on chin, fingers below chin) tilt the head back gently (this drags the floppy tongue away from obstructing the airways).
Check that the airways are clear, if not, try to remove any visible foreign matters. If there is vomit, gently roll them onto their side so that it will flow out instead of aspirating the lungs.
Breath - Keep airways open & check if the victim is breathing normally. Still keeping your hand on their forehead, tilting their head back, place your other hand on their stomach. Listen for the sounds of normal breathing (not gargling sounds, etc), look to see if the chest rises, & feel for air against your cheek.
If breathing normally, roll them into recovery position on their side.
If not breathing, call an ambulance & give them 2 breaths (open airway with head tilt & chin lift, close the nose firmly, blow into the casualty's mouth for 1 second & watch for chest rise, then repeat). *Believe me, this is difficult to do because you need to make sure the air you're blowing into the victim does not escape via the nostrils or mouth, so you have to make sure you have your mouth sealed around theirs when you're breathing into the victim's lungs!*
Also, if you're not comfortable giving rescue breaths, just start chest compressions straight away. According to our instructor, the pressure from chest compressions will eventually allow the air to move in & out of the lungs, & thus we are not totally obligated to give rescue breaths.
Compression - This is the fun bit, & the biggest workout. Place your hand in the center of the casualty's chest (below the axillary/armpit line, on the sternum), interlock your fingers, & give 30 compressions. If you've done this before, you'll know how incredibly hard it is to compress 1/3 of the chest depth even once, let alone 30 times. Studies have shown that if you push faster, giving about 100 to 120 compressions per minute (count this! it's about 2 compressions per second) is effective enough to bring the heart back, regardless of the depth. Of course, make sure you apply sufficient strength too.
After 30 compressions, give 2 breaths again (or skip this step). Continue this cycle until help arrives. Of course, all through these processes, I'm assuming that you're smart enough to regularly check for signs of the victim being alive, not just continuously performing CPR on an already conscious person.
Defibrillate - I'm not going into much detail about defibrillation, since it's usually done by trained personnels using an electronic device called Automated External Defibrillator. It's pretty cool because it has voice instructions to tell you what to do, but then it has a raspy, creepy voice where it goes, "breatheeee ......breatheeeee ....." while instructing you to give 2 breaths to the victim. It freaked me out. lol.
Remember, once you started first aid procedure on a victim, you're obligated to proceed until help arrives! So unless you're prepared to perform the full procedure until the ambulance arrives, don't start something you can't finish. Having said that, if you have had first aid training, you may want to attempt it because you could just may as well save a life using whatever basic knowledge you know about keeping them alive at that point until help arrives. You never know until you try, so don't hesitate.
Also, you might've noticed that there's nothing mentioned about checking for pulses, because apparently it takes too much precious time & you could've allocated that precious time to begin resuscitation. Pulses in unconscious patients are difficult to feel for because their blood vessels would be constricted (hypotensive), if I remembered correctly what the instructor told us.
The casualty, with replaceable mouth & severed arms & missing lower abdomen/extremities. Also has a gaping hole in his face due to the lack of mouth & nose.
The casualty's multiple mouths. I envy him because he gets to eat as much as his multiple mouths can.
This is where we had our first-aid training. Recognize the place? =)
Have you had any first aid training or came across a situation requiring emergency first aid? ^^
My Epipen! Lol. It was a demo but I took it home. I'm sure they have plenty more to go around, since there's like a bucketload of Epipens on the table. Epipen is a syringe containing adrenaline (or epinephrine, in US terminology, hence the name) designed for initial, immediate treatment of anaphylaxis.
Well, it was a fun day performing CPR & learning all I need to know about basic first aid. Now I'm totally drained, so off to bed for me!
xoxo
reina
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