4 First Aid Skills Everyone Should Know

 

The nature of an emergency is to strike without warning. Because of their unpredictable nature, you should learn what to do ahead of time if one should occur. Some life-saving skills, such as tower rescue training, are complex and require advanced training. However, many basic first aid skills are relatively simple to learn. They just require care to make sure you learned them correctly and can perform them properly if there is ever a need.

1. Bleeding Control

It is normal for a wound to bleed, but the loss of blood in large amounts can be dangerous. You can stop the bleeding by elevating the injured part above the heart, if possible, and applying direct pressure to it. You should hold a sterile dressing or clean cloth to the wound. Leave the cloth in place until help arrives, and if blood soaks through, apply more dressing on top of what is already there.

2. Heimlich Maneuver

When someone chokes on food or a foreign object, no air can get into the trachea. Therefore, it is important to act fast to prevent oxygen deprivation. The Heimlich maneuver can dislodge the foreign object with thrusts to the abdomen applied from behind. It is named after the doctor who developed it.

3. Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

CPR combines chest compressions and rescue breathing to keep circulation going until help arrives. The technique is different for children and infants than for adults. For an adult, give two rescue breaths for every 30 chest compressions performed. Adults should receive deeper chest compressions than infants or children. Even people without CPR training can perform chest compressions to maintain circulation without rescue breathing. That may be enough to keep the patient alive until help arrives.

4. Automatic External Defibrillator

A condition of the heart can cause it to just quiver without pumping any blood. An automatic external defibrillator is a version of the electric paddles that doctors use to restart the heart. An AED is designed so that the machine does most of the work, but you should still know how to set it up correctly so it can provide the electric shock as needed.

Source