First Aid is the help given to casualties before qualifi ed medical offi cers arrive. If you witness a road accident, it is important to note the registration number of the vehicle involved.
Importance of first aid is to;
1) Save the life of the injured
2) Prevent further injuries
3) Promote recoverly
4) Control the situation before taking the injured person to hospital.
In case of an accident, observe the following:
a) Stay as calm as you can while assisting the injured.
b) Assess the nature of the accident and determine how serious it is.
c) Find out how many people may be dead, seriously injured, slightly injured or not injured at all.
d) Assist the people who are not seriously injured to move to a safe place. Staying at the accident scene may be dangerous as the vehicle may burst into fl ames.
e) If the people are seriously injured or trapped in the vehicle, wait for qualified people to arrive. Removing such people may be very dangerous. It could make their injuries worse.
f) Loosen all tight clothing, shoes, belts, watches or ties while you wait for help.
g) Ensure that there is plenty of fresh air around the injured people. Ask people to move away from the injured so that they have plenty of fresh air.
h) Seek help. You can do this by shouting “ Heeelp” or by ringing the police on 999. In most cases, we do not need to pay money to
ring the police. You can also stop passing vehicles and ask for help.
i) Encourage the injured people by reassuring them that help is on the way. In a calm manner, explain to them what happened so that they can get a clear picture.
j) If the injured people or casualties are bleeding heavily, use a clean piece of cloth to put pressure on the wound. Add more cloth if blood seeps through. Avoid using dirty cloth as this may infect the wound.
k) Ensure that valuable items belonging to the casualties are safe. It is important to keep any documents on the scene and hand them over to the police.
l) Avoid coming in contact with the other person’s blood, especially if you have a cut on your hand. This is dangerous because
it is one way in which HIV and AIDS is transmitted.
m) If the injured person is not breathing, touch the neck and see if you can feel any movement of the blood. This movement is called the pulse. If you feel the person is alive, you may save their lives by helping them to be able to breathe again. This is called artifi cial resuscitation or mouth to mouth resuscitation.
During this process, the following simple steps
are followed:
a) Lay the patient so that the nose is pointing upwards.
b) Pinch the nose
c) Take a deep breath, then breathe deeply into the patient’s mouth until the chest rises.
Some accidents are caused by electrical shock. Here is what you should do if you find a person who has been injured by coming into contact with electricity.
