What are the basic first aid skills

There is no need to be greedy for basic first aid skills that ordinary people need to learn. The core is to stabilize the injured before professional first aid personnel arrive and seize the golden treatment window. If you are familiar with these, you can cover more than 90% of daily emergency scenarios.

I worked as a teaching assistant in the first aid charity class of the Municipal Red Cross Society for the past two years. I have seen too many ordinary people who learned the practical skills for two hours and put them to use. The one who impressed me the most was Aunt Zhang, who was in her 50s. Less than half a month after learning CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), she rescued an old man who had a heart attack and fell to the ground while walking. By the way, CPR now has to be used with an AED (automated external defibrillator). Many people are afraid to touch the square box because they are afraid of being held responsible if they operate it incorrectly. In fact, it is completely unnecessary. There is full voice guidance when you turn it on. Even if it is the first time you touch it, just follow the prompts to apply the electrode pads and listen to its instructions to judge whether to defibrillate. Just be careful to avoid metal jewelry on the body and the position of the pacemaker when applying it. There are not so many thresholds.

After talking about such fatal emergencies, the one we encounter most every day is actually airway foreign body obstruction, which is often called choking. Don't think that only children choke when eating jelly. Last week, I met a young man who was rushing to a morning meeting. He swallowed a meat bun in three mouthfuls and choked until he could not speak. In fact, the general logic of this Heimlich maneuver is very simple. It is to squeeze out the remaining air in the abdominal cavity to flush out foreign objects. It can also be used when you are choking alone. Just find the back of a chair or the corner of a table and hold that position and press hard. There is no need to memorize the complex gestures of different people. The core movements will work.

Then there is the inevitable daily trauma treatment. Many people have asked me before about how to deal with cuts on my hands while cutting vegetables, or skin scrapes after falling while riding a bike. In fact, small wounds do not need to be so complicated. Use running water to wash away the dirt, use an iodophor disinfectant bag and put on sterile gauze or a band-aid. Don’t sprinkle any powder on it, which will easily leave scars and affect wound healing. If you encounter arterial bleeding that cannot be stopped or even spurts out, don’t panic. Find a clean towel or thickly folded clothes and press it firmly on the wound. As long as the position is correct, it can be pressed in half a minute. If the wound is on an extremity, you can also tie a tourniquet on the side close to the heart. Remember the time of tying it. You need to loosen it for two or three minutes every 40 minutes to an hour, otherwise the limb will be prone to necrosis due to prolonged ischemia. Don't be careless if you are bitten by a cat or dog. Many people think that there is no need to get vaccinated if there is no bleeding. In fact, as long as the skin is broken or even there is only a light red mark, you must first wash it with soapy water for 15 minutes, and then go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to get a rabies vaccine. After all, the mortality rate of rabies is almost 100%. There is really no need to bet on the one in ten thousand chance.

Oh, yes, there is also the controversial treatment of burns and scalds. Up to now, many people are accustomed to applying toothpaste and soy sauce at home, thinking that it can cool down and relieve pain. This is really a big misunderstanding. The mint component in the toothpaste only temporarily makes people feel cold, but will block the wound and increase the risk of infection. The soy sauce is dark in color, and doctors at the hospital cannot accurately judge the depth of the burn. Current mainstream first aid guidelines recommend that you flush cold water at room temperature for 15-20 minutes immediately. If you have small blisters, don't pop them yourself. For large blisters, you can use a sterilized needle to poke a small hole on the edge to release the exudate. Don't tear off the skin of the blisters, and then go to the hospital for treatment.

Another small detail that is easily overlooked is the treatment of sprains. Many people immediately rub their feet with safflower oil or apply hot towels after spraining their feet. This will only dilate the blood vessels and make the swelling worse. Apply ice for the first 48 hours, for about 15 minutes each time, apply it every two or three hours, raise the injured area, and wait 48 hours before applying heat or using blood-activating medicine. It will be much better.

In fact, these skills are really not difficult. Find an offline public first aid class and practice them once, which is more effective than reading 10 short video tutorials. When you really encounter an accident, it is better to not panic and move correctly.