Most first aid is one of five situations, and in each one the first two minutes decide more than anything that happens afterwards. Read this once now; it is too late to read it when it is happening.
Before anything: three steps
- Make it safe. Traffic, fire, live wires, water. A second casualty helps nobody.
- Check response and breathing. Speak, then tap the shoulder. Look at the chest for up to ten seconds.
- Get help moving. Send one named person to arrange transport while you stay with the casualty.
Bleeding
- Press hard directly on the wound with a clean cloth, and keep pressing.
- If blood soaks through, add more cloth on top. Do not lift the first one to look.
- Raise the limb if you can.
- Do not use a tourniquet unless the limb is severed or the bleeding cannot be stopped any other way. If you do, note the time.
Choking
- If they can cough, let them cough. Do not hit them on the back while they are coughing effectively.
- If they cannot speak, cough or breathe: five firm back blows between the shoulder blades, leaning forward.
- Then five abdominal thrusts from behind, above the navel. Alternate until it clears.
- For a baby under one: five back blows and five chest thrusts, head lower than the body. Never abdominal thrusts.
Burns
- Cool with clean running water for twenty minutes. Not ice, not oil, not toothpaste, not butter.
- Remove clothing and jewellery near the burn unless it is stuck to the skin.
- Cover loosely with a clean cloth or cling film.
- Do not burst blisters.
Someone unconscious but breathing
Roll them onto their side, head tilted back slightly so the airway stays open and vomit can drain. Stay with them, keep watching the breathing, and get them to a facility.
Go to hospital immediately for
- Bleeding you cannot stop, or blood that spurts.
- Unconsciousness, or a casualty you cannot wake.
- Difficulty breathing, or breathing that stops.
- A burn that is large, deep, or on the face, hands, feet or genitals, or any burn in a child.
- A head injury with vomiting, confusion, or a fit.
- A suspected broken bone with a deformed limb, or bone through the skin.
- Any snake bite, any poisoning, any drowning, even if the person seems fine.
What not to do
- Do not move someone with a possible neck or back injury unless they are in immediate danger.
- Do not give food or drink to someone drowsy, confused, or who may need surgery.
- Do not put anything in the mouth of someone having a fit.
- Do not make anyone vomit after swallowing poison or a chemical.
