Saving a person: the most common questions about first aid

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Have there been situations in your life when someone needed help and you didn’t know what to do? Instructors of the V. A. Negovsky Research Institute of General Reanimatology of the FNKTs RR tell you how to act in critical situations.

# 1 Can I provide first aid if I have no medical education?

Yes! Any citizen has the right to provide first aid and carry out a set of simple measures aimed at eliminating the threat to human life before an ambulance arrives. What we shouldn't do is prescribe medication or injections to the victim ourselves. Simply put, if a grandmother got sick at a bus stop, according to the law, we cannot give her a pill “from the heart”. From the legal point of view, this can lead to all sorts of troubles.

# 2 I'm afraid to help, what if I only make it worse? I can't calculate my strength, will I break my rib or dislocate my arm? What will it be for me?

You should not be afraid, you are protected by law. If there is a threat to the victim's life and conditions of extreme necessity, harm when trying to provide assistance is allowed. If, while pulling the victim out of the burning car, you dislocated your arm or broke a rib while compressing the chest, you will get nothing. When providing assistance, you need to make sure that nothing will threaten your life.

No. 3 I see that a person is lying on the ground without moving. What should I do?

First of all, check if the person is conscious and breathing. Approach the victim, shake the shoulders, ask if everything is in order. If there is no response, check your breathing. The airways are often blocked, so you need to gently tilt your head back, holding your forehead and grasping your chin with two fingers. Then bend over to the victim's face and check if he is breathing, counting to ten.

If there is breathing, turn the person onto either side and then call an ambulance (112, 103). 7 million people worldwide die each year from sudden cardiac arrest.

№ 4 What if the person is not breathing and I cannot feel the pulse?

The main thing to pay attention to is breathing. The pulse is an unreliable indicator and may not always be felt. If you understand that the person is not breathing, you need to immediately begin chest compressions and call an ambulance. It's good when at this moment someone else is next to you. In this case, one person should call an ambulance, and the other should immediately begin cardiopulmonary resuscitation. If no one is around, call an ambulance, and then move on to action.

If a person is not helped for 7-10 minutes, he will die, but if CPR is started before the ambulance arrives, the chances of survival increase by 2-3 times. This applies not only to bystanders, but also to your loved ones, whose lives you can save.

# 5 What can I do before the ambulance arrives?

Before calling an ambulance, determine the exact address of your location. The easiest way to do this is by opening the map in the smartphone application, rather than running around yards looking for the number of the nearest house. Also assess the condition of the victim and be ready to answer the questions: is the person conscious, breathing or not, what injuries do you see, where you are (12 minutes is the average arrival time of an ambulance in Moscow). Do not be afraid to do compression heart massage! This is a simple skill that anyone can master.

Place your hands on the center of your chest. To make it clearer, this is where the bra bones converge for women (it is better to remove all the clothes that interfere with). Rest your palm in this place, clasp your hands in the lock and press hard on the chest to a depth of 5 cm. Try to perform compressions often.

Remember the rule: 30: 2. Thirty pressures - two breaths into the mouth.

Inhales don't have to be strong. Exhale normally. If you do everything correctly, the victim's chest will slightly rise. At the same time, the person's head should be tilted back a little so that the airways are open.

№ 6 How long should you do heart massage?

Remember that before starting resuscitation, we call an ambulance or ask someone to do it. Ideally, massage should be done before the ambulance arrives, that is, as long as you have strength. In fact, you are unlikely to succeed, as in the movies, to bring a person to consciousness, shake his hand and go home. Compression massage is needed to keep the brain working, which needs oxygen. Therefore, massage while you can, and if someone is nearby, alternate.

# 7 What if I don’t want to do artificial respiration? What if I get infected with something?

There are practically no cases when a rescuer got infected with something while providing first aid. But if you don't want to put your lips on the victim's mouth, just compress the chest is enough. There are also disposable sterile respiration face shields available. If you drive a car, you can buy and put in your first aid kit.

No. 8 The man next to me choked. Should I slap him on the back or tell him to raise his hands?

If a person choked, began to cough and can answer you something - you just need to tell him to continue and not be shy. The body is so arranged that it will do everything on its own. All you have to do is support: “Have you choked? Don't be afraid, cough - clear your throat. At this moment, the main thing is to calm down and observe the victim. Raising your arms sometimes helps to distract yourself, but from a physiological point of view, it does not change anything. Worse, if the suppressor grasps the throat while eating, cannot make a sound, and does not cough.

In this case, you need to come up from behind, ask the person to bend down slightly and hit the area between the shoulder blades five times, directing the blows slightly upward. If this does not help, you need to grab the victim with both hands in the abdomen, clench your hands into a fist just above the navel and below the chest and make several sharp jerks inward and upward. Repeat five times and, if it does not help, repeat the whole procedure. Doesn't help again? Call an ambulance.

No. 9 A man has badly cut himself, blood is pouring, what should I do?

It is enough for a person to lose 40% of blood to die. Blood may flow in a stream or tape. This is not so important. In international practice, within the framework of first aid, venous or arterial bleeding is now not divided, but begins with pressure on the wound. The first thing to do is to sit the person down and tell him to put his hand on the wound while you look for the material you need. To plant in order to slow down blood circulation or so that the person does not fall if he decides to lose consciousness.

Several years ago, it was recommended to stop bleeding by applying a tourniquet, but now this method is an extreme measure and is used only in cases where it is impossible to reach the wound (it is pressed with something) or there are several of them.

It is important for the first aider to wear rubber gloves. Examine the wound and assess what material is needed. This can be a pressure roller (bandage) or any clean, crumpled rag. Place the pressure roller over the wound so that it covers the entire wound and apply a bandage. Secure from the narrow end of an arm or leg as you unwind further.

It makes sense to apply a tourniquet only above the elbow or above the knee. There are two bones from the elbow to the wrist and from the knee to the ankle, so it is simply not possible to block the blood circulation between them.