Do you know how to deal with an incident at home or work?
When approaching the casualty, you should first think about your safety, the safety of the casualty and anyone else around you. Is there anything that will cause you or anyone else further harm i.e., Vehicles, fire, equipment, falling debris? If you are to touch the casualty you may need to wear gloves or a face shield if performing CPR or getting close to them to check if they are breathing. Do you have access to a first aid kit, a defibrillator and phone? Are there any bystanders to assist you. Do we know the casualty’s name – is anyone with them? Are they an adult or child?
In the current climate you may wish
to think about covid – obviously we do not want you to place yourself under
unnecessary risk by placing yourself close to the casualty, this is why we use
face shields and face masks. However, if the casualty is not breathing
you will need to perform CPR which involves mouth to mouth. This is your
choice of course but a vital role within CPR. For further information on First Aid Training in Hertfordshire please.
Role Play
Imagine we are walking down the
street and we are called in to a busy and noisy shop to assist with an elderly
gentleman that has collapsed in the store.
In this example let’s presume the
casualty is laying on their back.
To do this we shall conduct what is
called, the primary survey.
The “Primary Survey” is made up by
following DRABC.
Follow this sequence…
D - DANGER Is it safe for you, the casualty, or bystanders.
Think about what has happened and how it has happened.
R - RESPONSE Tap the casualty on their shoulders, pinch their ear
lobes. Ask the casualty questions and state your purpose, like “I am
David, a first aider, I am here to help you, can you hear me? Can you open your
eyes for me? What is your name?”.
Presuming there is no response – we
shall move on.
A - AIRWAY Open the casualty’s mouth and look inside, is there
anything blocking their airway? (In general we do not want to place anything
including our fingers in to a casualty’s mouth unless we have to) If you see a
removable object can you remove it using your fingers? If so, then remove it.
At this point we shall also look to
open the casualty’s airway. To do this place one hand on their forehead
and two fingers from your other hand under their chin and tilt their head back
(commonly named head tilt chin lift procedure). Then open their mouth
gently with their head tilted gently back.
B – BREATHING With the casualty’s head gently tilted back (Opening their
airway) place your ear close to the casualty’s mouth and nose looking down
their body (a few inches above) and look, listen, and feel for normal breathing
for up to 10 seconds.
Look – Can you see their chest area rising and falling?
Listen – Can you hear them breathing?
Feel – Can you feel their breath on the side of your face?
Let’s assume they are breathing
normally but unresponsive. For this example, we shall also state that
they have fainted or passed out.
C – CIRCULATION With the casualty breathing normally and not responding we
shall now continue to perform a head-to-toe check. We are looking up and
down their body to see if there is anything obvious that could be wrong such as
bleeding and breaks etc. We can and may need to touch the casualty but,
as you do also speak out to explain your actions and reaffirm their
responsiveness i.e. “Roger, I am just going to check down your legs to see if
there is any bleeding, is that ok”?
This is the “Primary Survey”
complete.
To view this as a video please visit
- https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/425801253
Dignity
It goes without saying that when
performing first aid whether we are trained or not we shall do it showing
dignity towards the casualty. This may mean asking everyone with
exception to 1-2 persons to leave the area. We may need to hold up a coat
or blanket to help shield the incident from others.
During our next blog we shall look
at what if the casualty is “not breathing”. We shall explain to you how
to perform CPR.
To know more about Food Safety Training.
Kind regards
Garry Harvey
Operations and Training Director
The Training Centre
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Training Centre.
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in the UK No. 14570211
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City Road,London, EC1V 2NX
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