First Aid
When you provide basic medical care to someone experiencing a sudden injury or illness, it’s known as first aid.
In some cases, first aid consists of the initial support provided to someone in the middle of a medical emergency. This support might help them survive until professional help arrives.
In other cases, first aid consists of the care provided to someone with a minor injury. For example, first aid is often all that’s needed to treat minor burns, cuts, and insect stings.
At any moment, you or someone around you could experience an injury or illness. Using basic first aid, you may be able to stop a minor mishap from getting worse. In the case of a serious medical emergency, you may even save a life. That’s why it’s so important to learn basic first aid skills.
The largest benefits of first aid are:
- It allows those trained with the potentially life-saving ability to assist an injured or ill person during a variety of emergency situations.
- Knowledge in First Aid benefits the individuals themselves regardless of whether an emergency affects them directly.
- While everyone can benefit from First Aid knowledge and training it is an even greater benefit to those working or living with individuals who require ongoing special attention.
Three steps for emergency situations
If you encounter an emergency situation, follow these three basic steps:
1. Check the scene for danger
Look for anything that might be dangerous, like signs of fire, falling debris, or violent people. If your safety is at risk, remove yourself from the area and call for help.
If the scene is safe, assess the condition of the sick or injured person. Don’t move them unless you must do so to protect them from danger.
2. Call for medical help, if needed
If you believe the sick or injured person needs emergency medical care, tell a nearby person to call 911 or the local number for emergency medical services. If you’re alone, make the call yourself.
3. Provide care
If you can do so safely, remain with the sick or injured person until professional help arrives. Cover them with a warm blanket, comfort them, and try to keep them calm. If you have basic first aid skills, try to treat any potentially life-threatening injuries they have.
Remove yourself from danger if at any point in the situation you think your safety might be at risk.
First aid bandage
In many cases, you can use an adhesive bandage to cover minor cuts, scrapes, or burns. To cover and protect larger wounds, you might need to apply a clean gauze pad or roller bandage.
To apply a roller bandage to a wound, follow these steps:
- Hold the injured area steady.
- Gently but firmly wrap the bandage around the injured limb or body part, covering the wound.
- Fasten the bandage with sticky tape or safety pins.
- The bandage should be wrapped tightly enough to stay put, but not so tightly that it cuts off blood flow.
First aid for burns
If you suspect that someone has a third-degree burn, call 911. Look for professional medical care for any burns that:
- cover a large area of skin
- are located on the person’s face, groin, buttocks, hands, or feet
- have been caused by contact with chemicals or electricity
To treat a minor burn, run cool water over the affected area for up to 15 minutes. If that’s not possible, apply a cool compress to the area instead. Avoid applying ice to burned tissue. It can cause more damage.
First aid CPR
If you see someone fall down or find someone unconscious, call 911. If the area around the unconscious person seems safe, approach them and begin CPR.
Even if you don’t have formal training, you can use hands-only CPR to help keep someone alive until professional help arrives.
Here’s how to treat an adult with hands-only CPR:
- Place both hands on the center of their chest, with one hand on top of the other.
- Press straight down to compress their chest repeatedly, at a rate of about 100 to 120 compressions per minute.
- Compressing the chest to the beat of “Staying Alive” by the Bee Gees or “Crazy in Love” by Beyoncé can help you count at the correct rate.
- Continue performing chest compressions until professional help arrives.
First Aid for wounds
The following is the first aid treatment for externally bleeding wounds:
- Do not apply a tourniquet unless trained to do so.
- Do not push anything back into the skin.
- Do not apply antibiotic cream unless the wound is minor and cleaned first.
- Do not remove the blood-soaked bandage.
- Do not put pressure on an object sticking out of a wound.
- Do not use pressure points nor elevation.
The following is the first aid treatment for major wounds:
The following is the first aid treatment for minimally bleeding wounds:
- Clean the wound with soap and clean running tap water.
- Apply continuous firm, direct pressure to wound until bleeding stops.
- Once the bleeding stops, apply antibiotic ointment. Cover with dressing.
- If bleeding soaks through bandage do not remove the original bandage.
- Apply more bandages and pressure.
First aid for nosebleed
To treat someone with a nosebleed, ask them to:
- Sit down and bend their head forward.
- Using the thumb and index finger, firmly press or pinch the nostrils closed.
- Continue to apply this pressure continuously for five minutes.
- Check and repeat until the bleeding stops.
If the nosebleed continues for 20 minutes or longer, seek emergency medical care. The person should also receive follow-up care if an injury caused the nosebleed.
First Aid for Sprains
Sprains involve a stretch or a partial tear of ligaments (which connect two bones). Sprains happen more often in teens than in younger children.
Signs and Symptoms
- pain in the joint or muscle
- swelling and bruising
- warmth and redness of the injured area
- trouble moving the injured part
What to Do
- Make sure your child stops activity right away.
Get Emergency Medical Care if Your Child Has:
- severe pain when the injured part is touched or moved
- continued trouble bearing weight
- more bruising
- numbness or a feeling of "pins and needles" in the injured area
- a limb that looks "bent" or misshapen
- signs of infection (increased warmth, redness, streaks, swelling, and pain)
- a strain or sprain that doesn't seem to be improving after 5 to 7 days
Think Prevention!
Teach kids to warm up properly and to stretch before and after exercising or participating in any sport, and make sure they
always wear appropriate protective equipment.
First aid for heatstroke
When your body overheats, it can cause heat exhaustion. If left untreated, heat exhaustion can lead to heatstroke. This is a potentially life-threatening condition and a medical emergency.
If someone is overheated, encourage them to rest in a cool location. Remove excess layers of clothing and try to cool their body down by doing the following:
- Cover them with a cool, damp sheet.
- Apply a cool, wet towel to the back of their neck.
- Sponge them with cool water.
Call 911 if they develop signs or symptoms of heatstroke, including any of the following:
- nausea or vomiting
- fainting
- a fever of 104°F (40°C) or greater
If they’re not vomiting or unconscious, encourage them to sip cool water or a sports drink.
First aid for heart attack
If you think someone might be experiencing a heart attack, call 911. If they’ve been given nitro-glycerine, help them locate and take this medication. Cover them with a blanket and comfort them until professional help arrives.
If they have difficulty breathing, loosen any clothing around their chest and neck. Start CPR if they lose consciousness.
First Aid for Broken Bones and Fractures
What is a broken bone?
A broken bone happens when one of your bones becomes cracked or broken into multiple pieces. It’s also known as a fracture. It can result from a sports injury, accident, or violent trauma.
Broken bones usually aren’t life-threatening, but they do require immediate medical care. Learn how to recognize the symptoms of a broken bone, provide first-aid treatment, and get professional help.
What are the symptoms of a broken bone?
A broken bone can cause one or more of the following signs and symptoms:
- intense pain in the injured area that gets worse when you move it
- numbness in the injured area
- bluish color, swelling, or visible deformity in the injured area
- bone protruding through the skin
- heavy bleeding at the injury site
How can you provide first-aid care for a broken bone?
If you suspect that someone has a broken bone, provide first-aid treatment and help them get professional care:
- Stop any bleeding: If they’re bleeding, elevate and apply pressure to the wound using a sterile bandage, a clean cloth, or a clean piece of clothing.
- Immobilize the injured area: If you suspect they’ve broken a bone in their neck or back, help them stay as still as possible. If you suspect they’ve broken a bone in one of their limbs, immobilize the area using a splint or sling.
- Apply cold to the area: Wrap an ice pack or bag of ice cubes in a piece of cloth and apply it to the injured area for up to 10 minutes at a time.
- Treat them for a shock: Help them get into a comfortable position, encourage them to rest, and reassure them. Cover them with a blanket or clothing to keep them warm.
- Get professional help: Call 911 or help them get to the emergency department for professional care.
If the person doesn’t appear to be breathing, is unconscious, or both, call 911 for medical help and begin CPR.
First aid for chocking
Choking occurs when a foreign object lodged in the throat or windpipe, blocking the flow of air. In adults, a piece of food often is the culprit. Young children often swallow small objects. Because choking cuts off oxygen to the brain, give first aid as quickly as possible.
The common sign for choking is hands clutched to the throat. If the person doesn't give the signal, look for these indications:
- Inability to talk
- Difficulty breathing or noisy breathing
- Squeaky sounds when trying to breathe
- Cough, which may either be weak or forceful
- Skin, lips, and nails turning blue or dusky
- Skin that is flushed then turns pale or bluish in color
- Loss of consciousness
If the person can cough forcefully, the person should keep coughing. If the person is choking and can't talk, cry or laugh forcefully, we can use the "five-and-five" approach to delivering first aid:
- Give 5 back blows. Stand to the side and just behind a choking adult. For a child, kneel down behind. Place one arm across the person's chest for support. Bend the person over at the waist so that the upper body is parallel with the ground. Deliver five separate back blows between the person's shoulder blades with the heel of your hand.
- Give 5 abdominal thrusts. Perform five abdominal thrusts (also known as the Heimlich maneuver).
- Alternate between 5 blows and 5 thrusts until the blockage is dislodged.
To perform abdominal thrusts on someone else:
- Stand behind the person. Place one foot slightly in front of the other for balance. Wrap your arms around the waist. Tip the person forward slightly. If a child is choking, kneel down behind the child.
- Make a fist with one hand. Position it slightly above the person's navel.
- Grasp the fist with the other hand. Press hard into the abdomen with a quick, upward thrust, as if trying to lift the person up.
- Perform between six and 10 abdominal thrusts until the blockage is dislodged.
If you're the only rescuer, perform back blows and abdominal thrusts before calling 911 or your local emergency number for help. If another person is available, have that person call for help while you perform first aid.
If the person becomes unconscious, perform standard cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) with chest compressions and rescue breaths.
To perform abdominal thrusts on yourself:
First, if you're alone and choking, call 911 or your local emergency number immediately. Then, although you'll be unable to effectively deliver back blows to yourself, you can still perform abdominal thrusts to dislodge the item.
- Place a fist slightly above your navel.
- Grasp your fist with the other hand and bend over a hard surface — a countertop or chair will do.
- Shove your fist inward and upward.
To clear the airway of a pregnant woman or an obese person:
- Position your hands a little bit higher than with a normal abdominal thrust, at the base of the breastbone, just above the joining of the lowest ribs.
- Proceed as with the abdominal thrusts, pressing hard into the chest, with a quick thrust.
- Repeat until the food or other blockage is dislodged.
To clear the airway of an unconscious person:
- Lower the person on his or her back onto the floor, arms to the side.
- Clear the airway. If a blockage is visible at the back of the throat or high in the throat, reach a finger into the mouth and sweep out the cause of the blockage. Don't try a finger sweep if you can't see the object. Be careful not to push the food or object deeper into the airway, which can happen easily in young children.
- Begin CPR if the object remains lodged and the person doesn't respond after you take the above measures. The chest compressions used in CPR may dislodge the object. Remember to recheck the mouth periodically.
To clear the airway of a choking infant younger than age 1:
- Assume a seated position and hold the infant face down on your forearm, which is resting on your thigh. Support the infant's head and neck with your hand, and place the head lower than the trunk.
- Thump the infant gently but firmly five times in the middle of the back using the heel of your hand. The combination of gravity and the back blows should release the blocking object. Keep your fingers pointed up to avoid hitting the infant in the back of the head.
- Turn the infant faceup on your forearm, resting on your thigh with the head lower than the trunk if the infant still isn't breathing. Using two fingers placed at the center of the infant's breastbone, give five quick chest compressions. Press down about 1 1/2 inches, and let the chest rise again in between each compression.
- Repeat the back blows and chest thrusts if breathing doesn't resume. Call for emergency medical help.
- Begin infant CPR if one of these techniques opens the airway but the infant doesn't resume breathing.
If the child is older than age 1 and conscious, give abdominal thrusts only. Be careful not to use too much force to avoid damaging ribs or internal organs.
First aid kit for babies
To prepare for potential emergencies, it’s a good idea to keep a well-stocked first-aid kit in your home, car, and school and even in the classroom. You can buy preassembled first aid kits or make your own.
If you have a baby, you might need to replace or supplement some of the products in a standard first aid kit with infant-appropriate alternatives. For example, your kit should include an infant thermometer and infant acetaminophen or ibuprofen.
It’s also important to store the kit in a place where your baby can’t reach it.
First aid kit list
You never know when you might need to provide basic first aid. To prepare for the unpredictable, considering storing a well-stocked first aid kit in your home and school. It’s also a good idea to have a first aid kit available at the classroom.
You can buy preassembled first aid kits from many first aid organizations, pharmacies, or outdoor recreation stores. Alternatively, you can create your own first aid kit using products purchased from a pharmacy.
A standard first aid kit should include:
- adhesive bandages of assorted sizes
- roller bandages of assorted sizes
- absorbent compress dressings
- sterile gauze pads
- adhesive cloth tape
- triangular bandages
- antiseptic wipes
- aspirin
- acetaminophen or ibuprofen
- antibiotic ointment
- hydrocortisone cream
- calamine lotion
- nitrile or vinyl gloves
- safety pins
- scissors
- tweezers
- thermometer
- breathing barrier
- instant cold pack
- blanket
- first aid manual
It’s also smart to include a list of your healthcare providers, emergency contact numbers, and prescribed medications in your first aid kits.
CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation)
• CPR is an emergency procedure performed if someone has stopped breathing or if their heart has stopped.
• The first-aider continues to give CPR until the patient starts breathing unaided or a medical professional can take over.
• For bystanders untrained in CPR: just give chest compressions, hard and fast, at 100 compressions per minute.
• For trained first-aiders, CPR involves giving a repeated cycle of 30 chest compressions followed by two breaths.
If the brain is starved of oxygen for more than four minutes, as may occur in a near-drowning or heart attack, permanent brain damage can result. Immediate action is required: every second count.
The role of the lay rescuer/first-aider (i.e. anyone who is not a certified medic or paramedic) is to continue to give CPR until the patient starts to breathe unaided or professional help arrives to take over.
Even if you're not an experienced first aider, rather err on the side of giving CPR imperfectly than not giving it at all - it is always better to try than not.
Action plan
Remember H H H CAB:
H: Hazards
H: Hello
H: Help
C: Compressions for Circulation
A: Airway
B: Breathing
Follow these steps:
H is for Hazards
Ask yourself: Are there any life-threatening hazards or dangers to you or the patient? If so, you need to manage them or move yourself and the patient out of harm’s way.
H is for Hello
Is the patient awake or unconscious? Ask loudly: Are you OK? If there is no response, tap the shoulder.
If there is still no response, it means the patient is not getting enough blood and oxygen to the brain and needs help.
H is for Help
Call for others around you to come and help – there may be a doctor or paramedic within shouting distance.
Phone 119 for emergency medical help:
Tell the operator that you have an unconscious patient and state exactly where you are. They will ask for a call-back number if you have one. If you need advice on how to do CPR they can assist you telephonically.
C is for CHEST COMPRESSIONS to restore CIRCULATION
You need to perform chest compressions to keep blood circulating to the tissues.
- Kneel beside the patient. Place the heel of one hand in the center of the chest on the nipple line (imaginary line joining the two nipples) on the breastbone. Place the heel of your other hand on top of the first hand. Lean over the victim with your arms straight and elbows locked, and your shoulders directly above your hands.
- Press down vertically on the victim’s breastbone 4-5 cm to a count of “one-and-two-and-three-and-four…”, giving one push each time you say a number. When saying “and”, release the pressure but do not move your hands from their location on the chest. Push hard and fast at a rate of about 100 compressions a minute.
If you haven't been trained in CPR, or have received training but are out of practice, continue chest compressions until there are signs of movement or until emergency help arrives.
If you have been trained in CPR, go on to checking the airway and giving rescue breathing.
A is for AIRWAY
Open the airway.
- Place two fingers on the forehead and two fingers under the bony part of the chin and gently tilt the head back – the so-called “head- tilt chin-lift” method of opening the airway.
- Check for normal breathing, taking no more than 10 seconds. Look for chest motion, listen for normal breath sounds, and feel for the person's breath on your cheek and ear. Gasping is not considered to be normal breathing.
- If the person isn't breathing normally, begin mouth-to-mouth breathing. If you believe the person is unconscious from a heart attack and you haven't been trained in emergency procedures, skip mouth-to-mouth rescue breathing and continue chest compressions.
B is for BREATHING
If the patient is not breathing you need to breathe for them:
Make sure the airway is open by keeping the head tilted back - keep one hand on the forehead and two fingers of the other hand under the chin to lift the jaw. If you have a pocket mask, place it over the patient’s mouth and nose.
- Blow gently and slowly while you watch to see if the chest rises.
- Give 2 breaths. Each breath should take 2 seconds (one in one out). Between breaths, lift your head and see if the chest moves. If the chest rises and falls, it is effective breathing. If it does not, try again. Make up to 5 attempts if necessary.
- Continue with the chest compressions.
- Repeat the cycle of 30 compressions and 2 breaths until help arrives or the patient starts to recover. If you are not sure that the patient is breathing unaided, continue with CPR.
- Even if the patient appears to have fully recovered, stay with them and monitor them closely until medical help arrives.
There is risk of infection with mouth-to-mouth contact and so unless the patient is a family member it is best to use a pocket mask during resuscitation. (This simple mask, which covers the patient’s mouth and nose, prevents any contact with body fluids).
