What are the types of basic first aid skills?

The basic first aid skills often mentioned are essentially centered around the three goals of "saving life as soon as possible, avoiding aggravation of injuries, and reducing the pain of the injured." Commonly used in daily scenarios basically cover the following directions: cardiac arrest treatment, relief of airway foreign body obstruction, trauma treatment, and response to common home accidental injuries.

I have been a volunteer at a community first aid station for three years. The most fatal danger I encountered was cardiac arrest. The corresponding use of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) + automated external defibrillator (AED) is also the highest priority among all basic first aid skills. Last month, Uncle Zhang in the community suffered a heart attack and fell to the ground during morning exercises. People around him did not dare to touch him. I happened to be setting up a science stall nearby. I felt that the carotid artery was not pulsing and the chest was not rising. I immediately knelt down and performed chest compressions and called passers-by to the security room to get an AED. His heartbeat was restored within 4 minutes. Now he is still carrying home-grown tomatoes to our station. In fact, the threshold for getting started with this skill is very low. For chest compression, you just need to place the heel of your palm at the midpoint between the two nipples and press it hard and quickly. After the AED is turned on, there will be a voice prompt. Just follow the operation. Even if you are not tested, if you dare to use it, it is better than waiting for an ambulance. After all, the golden rescue time for cardiac arrest is only 4 minutes, and most of the time the ambulance cannot catch up.

In addition to the critical situation of suddenly falling to the ground, the fatal danger with the highest daily occurrence rate is airway foreign body obstruction, and the corresponding Heimlich maneuver is also a skill that ordinary people must master. Last month, a parent brought his two-year-old child to the popular science class. The child secretly stuffed a hard candy in his pocket into his mouth. Within two minutes, his face turned purple and he couldn't speak. I quickly went behind the child and pressed my upper abdomen with two fingers three times quickly. The candy spurted out half a meter away, which frightened the parent and made the parent cry on the spot. This method has different operating techniques for different age groups. If you practice it two or three times with the popular science video, you will be able to memorize it roughly. When you encounter it, you will not have to pat your back and worry.

As for trauma skills, the most commonly used ones are hemostatic bandaging and fracture fixation. There was a worker at a construction site whose brachial artery was scratched by a steel bar, and blood spurted directly to the ceiling. When he was sent to the station, I used acupressure to hold the proximal end of his upper arm, and then used an elastic bandage to bandage it. When he was sent to the hospital, the doctor who received him said that the bleeding was stopped in time. If it had been five or six minutes later, he might have suffered from hemorrhagic shock. If you encounter a fall and suspected fracture, don't pull or pull the injured person hard. Find two hard branches or hiking poles, put a coat or towel on both sides of the injured limb, and just fix it and don't shake it to prevent the broken bone from shifting and poking the blood vessels and nerves. Last time I took my travel companions for a hike, a girl stepped in the air and broke her calf. We used two trekking poles to fix her and carry her down the mountain. The doctor said that the fixation was very standard and no secondary injuries were caused.

There are also some commonly used tips for daily home use. For example, after a burn, rinse it with running cold water for 15-20 minutes. Do not apply messy toothpaste, soy sauce, badger oil, etc., which may easily cause infection or deepen the wound. Oh, by the way, there are different views in the industry on poisoning first aid. In the past, it was always said that if you accidentally swallowed a foreign object, you should induce vomiting as soon as possible. Now more and more clinical cases have proved that if you accidentally swallow highly corrosive items such as toilet cleaning spirit and caustic soda, vomiting will cause the esophagus and throat to be burned twice. Now it is more recommended to remember the accidentally swallowed items as soon as possible, bring the packaging to the doctor as soon as possible, and do not blindly dispose of it yourself. Before, our station picked up an old man who mistakenly took toilet cleaning liquid. His wife insisted on giving him soapy water to induce vomiting. Fortunately, his children stopped him. When he was sent to the hospital, the doctor said that if he really induced vomiting, his esophagus might be burned and perforated.

In fact, ordinary people really don’t have to worry about learning all the first aid skills by heart. If they can memorize the three core ones of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, Heimlich maneuver, and trauma compression and hemostasis, they can deal with more than 80% of fatal first aid scenarios. When you have free time, go to the Red Cross Society or community hospital near your home to listen to free first aid classes and practice for about ten minutes. It is better than standing aside and panicking when something happens.