What to do while the ambulance is traveling: emergency procedures

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The life hacker has selected several tips from the book "First aid with your own hands", which will help you to behave correctly in urgent situations. This knowledge can save someone's life.

When an ambulance travels for a long time and there is a threat to a person's life, you need to act quickly and correctly. Of course, first aid is not a substitute for professional first aid. But sometimes a few simple actions can save the victim's life.

First aid for burns

As a rule, thermal burns do not pose a threat to life if they do not affect the respiratory tract, there is no swelling of the neck or face, or if we are not talking about a deep burn with a large area of damage. But even minor burns cause pain. Here's how to get rid of it:

1. Remove heat source, remove hot or embarrassing clothing from the burn site.
2. Cool the burn area with water to reduce pain and tissue damage. Ice is not suitable for these purposes: it interferes with blood flow to damaged tissues.
3. If possible, raise the burned area above the level of the heart. This is not the most effective method, but it may relieve pain a little as the nerves become less sensitive.
4. Never use oil, grease, or ointments on burns. They keep the heat in the wound. First, cool the burn down and only after a few hours lubricate the damaged skin with an antibiotic cream.
5. Estimate the area of the lesion. All further actions depend on the degree of the burn.

A simple way to assess the area of the lesion is to compare the size of the burned area and the victim's palm: the surface of the palm is about 1% of the total surface of the body. James Hubbard

First degree burns

These are minor sunburns that are painful. Only the top layer of the skin is damaged, so everything goes away in a few days: the old skin will peel off, and a new one will appear in its place.

To get rid of pain will help:

• Cold compress.
• Aloe Vera Gel.
• Anti-inflammatory drugs with analgesic effect.

Second degree burns

A second-degree burn can be determined visually: bubbles appear immediately or after a few hours. There is a great danger of catching an infection, so be sure to go to the hospital if the affected area is more than 5%. These burns take 2-3 weeks to heal, but small scars are likely to remain.

Proceed in the same way as for an open wound:

• Don't touch small bubbles. Puncture bubbles with a diameter of 2–3 centimeters with a sterile instrument.
• After the puncture, clean the affected area.
• Apply a sterile dressing.
• If the redness spreads to healthy skin, take an antibiotic.

Third degree burns

All layers of the skin are damaged, so it becomes completely white or burnt out. In some cases, such deep burns may not cause pain: the nerve endings in the layers of the skin die off, the affected area becomes numb.

Healing takes months, and scars are almost inevitable. For large lesions, skin grafting is often required. In such cases:

• Seek medical attention immediately.
• Before the doctor arrives, proceed in the same way as for second-degree burns: clean the wound, apply a sterile bandage with antibacterial ointment.
• When healing, try to knead the joints more: this way, scars that limit mobility will not appear.

First aid for nosebleeds

There are a lot of vessels in the nostrils that are located close to the surface of the mucous membrane. Due to its dryness or damage, severe bleeding can begin.

1. When blood starts flowing from your nose, sit down instead of lying down: this will reduce the pressure in the nose.
2. Do not throw your head back, otherwise the blood will flow down the pharynx and enter the respiratory tract. Tilt your head forward.
3. Pinch the wings of your nose with your fingers. Usually, direct pressure stops the bleeding.
4. Pinch your nose for 10 minutes.
5. If the blood continues to flow, find out which nostril is bleeding. To do this, clamp them one by one.
6. Insert a tampon or piece of gauze folded very tightly into the bleeding nostril. You can pre-lubricate it with an antibacterial solution or drip some vasoconstrictor nasal drops. If bleeding continues, the tampon does not fit snugly enough.
7. If the blood does not stop either from the pinching of the nose or from the tampon, immediately call an ambulance. You may have posterior nosebleeds that involve an artery. Doctors will be able to stop the blood loss.

First aid for fainting

Fainting is a sudden loss of consciousness due to insufficient cerebral circulation. Sometimes it is caused by completely harmless reasons, but in some cases, medical attention is vital. But no matter what caused the attack, you need to act like this:

1. When the first signs of fainting appear - nausea, sweating, rapid breathing, tunnel vision, wet hands, pallor and dizziness - sit the person down and invite him to bend down so that his head is below the rib cage. The best option is to lie down.
2. If you see that a person is fainting, hold him so that he does not hurt himself.
3. When the head is on the same level with the heart or below, consciousness should return. Although the patient may still be in a state of lethargy for some time.
4. Don't let him get up until the symptoms are completely gone.
5. Check your pulse and blood pressure.
6. If the indicators are normal, the patient can sit down. After sitting for a few more minutes, you can try to get up. If symptoms return, lay him down again.
7. Try to figure out what caused the fainting. If there are warning signs, you need to get qualified medical attention as soon as possible.

Causes of fainting

Often the cause of fainting is obvious, such as being too impressed by the sight of blood, or dehydrating after vomiting. In some cases, it is impossible to understand the cause without a medical examination.

To understand what caused the attack, it is useful to know what types of fainting there are. Doctors divide them into four categories.

1. Vasovagal syncope

Perfectly healthy people fall into such a swoon: due to fear, anxiety, coughing, tension, the sight of blood, or even laughter. Why in some people a sudden drop in blood pressure causes such a reaction, while in others it is not, scientists have not figured out. But this is the safest type of fainting.

2. Postural syncope

Sometimes people faint when they stand up suddenly: the heart and blood vessels simply did not have time to deliver a sufficient amount of blood to the brain. May be due to blood loss, anemia, or dehydration.

3. Cardiac syncope

Due to heart problems, blood flow to the brain is reduced, so an attack occurs. Possible causes are heart attack, heart failure, heartbeat too fast or too slow, or weakened heart muscle.

4. Neurological syncope

Rarely, but this still happens: people faint due to severe migraines. Also, the cause can be a transient ischemic attack (microstroke).

Symptoms for which doctors need help immediately

• No antecedent symptoms. For example, before losing consciousness, the heart did not beat faster. This may be a sign of heart problems, which means that urgent hospitalization is needed.
• Fainting occurred during exercise. Perhaps it is caused by overvoltage and is not dangerous. But there is also the possibility of asymptomatic heart disease. Therefore, it is imperative to conduct a medical examination.
• Pupils of different sizes. This indicates a strong pressure in the brain. Likely causes are stroke, concussion, or swelling.
• Strong headache. It may be just a migraine, but it may also be a stroke.
• Severe back pain. May be a sign of aortic dissecting aneurysm. This is a disease in which the vessel from the heart is stratified. Emergency hospitalization is required.

First aid for heatstroke

The most important thing in hyperthermia is to notice the symptoms in time and cool down. Heatstroke is dangerous because the body's cooling system stops working. However, internal metabolic processes do not stop and generate heat. Therefore, the organs begin to literally weld.

Heatstroke can be recognized by the following symptoms. After prolonged exposure to the sun, a person becomes agitated, euphoric, his heart rate and breathing quicken, and no sweat is released. Severe headache, blurred consciousness, and hallucinations are also possible.

You need to act quickly in such a situation. Follow the instructions below and try to use whatever you have at your fingertips.

1. Call an ambulance immediately. Do not expect a person to recover on their own after heatstroke: even after cooling, some organs remain damaged.
2. Refrigerate the patient before the ambulance arrives. If he is able to walk, get to a cool room. Otherwise, take it to the shade.
3. Take off your outer clothing.
4. Spray and wash the victim with cool water. Then fan it to release heat. You can dip the sheet in ice water and wrap the patient in it.
5. If there is ice, wrap it in a cloth and place it on the groin and axillary areas of the body and under the neck.
6. The radical way: put the victim in a bath of ice water if he does not have heart problems.
7. If the victim is conscious, give him as much cold water as possible to drink.

James Hubbard's DIY First Aid is a book worth putting in every medicine cabinet. Thanks to it, you will learn how to properly respond to various crisis situations: bruises, cuts, bites, frostbite and heart attacks. This book will help you not to get confused and help yourself and others in a situation when there is nowhere to wait for help and you need to rely only on yourself.