What are the types and characteristics of basic first aid skills

Seize the golden rescue window, avoid secondary damage, and use the lowest threshold operation to maximize your survival probability.

I have been working as a community first aid volunteer for almost four years. Last month, I was with the police on a sudden death in the corridor. The first thing I used was life support cardiopulmonary resuscitation + AED operation. These skills are all aimed at saving lives, and the error tolerance rate is extremely low. If the patient is delayed by three to five minutes or the compression depth is one centimeter different, the person may not be able to be saved. In the past, there was a special discussion in the industry about whether non-professionals should learn standard airway opening movements. Some people are afraid of breaking the patient's cervical spine because they are inexperienced, so they advocate just doing chest compressions. There is also data that opening the airway can increase the success rate of resuscitation by more than 30%. Now our training teaches both options, allowing everyone to choose according to the on-site situation. If no one dares to move the cervical spine, it is better to perform chest compressions first than to stand and wait.

In addition to such fatal emergencies, we encounter more traumatic injuries such as bumps, scratches, and sprains on a daily basis, which correspond to trauma management skills. To put it bluntly, they include stopping bleeding, bandaging, fixing, and transportation. This type of fault tolerance is slightly higher, but it particularly tests the details. I was particularly impressed by a young man who tried to stop the bleeding of a friend who cut his wrist last year. He tied a rubber band around his wrist for two hours and did not let it go for two hours. In the end, someone saved him and his wrist was almost amputated. It was such a pity. There is also a lot of controversy about this part, such as whether to flush the wound first after being cut by a rusty iron tool. Some people think that flushing can easily bring surface contaminants into the deep layers of the wound. Others say that flushing the surface foreign matter immediately can reduce the risk of infection by 60%. Our current practical instructions say that if clean normal saline solution is available, do not flush it with mineral water or even boiled water. If not, just apply pressure directly to stop the bleeding and send it to the hospital.

There are also some scenarios where neither CPR nor bandaging is required, such as when a bone gets stuck while eating, someone faints from heatstroke while walking in the park in the summer, or an elderly person suddenly suffers chest pain from a myocardial infarction at home. These correspond to common emergency response skills, such as the Heimlich maneuver, lying down medication for myocardial infarction, and heat stroke cooling. This category is characterized by the most common scenarios and the lowest operating threshold, but it is also the easiest to remember incorrectly. A while ago I saw a video of a parent patting the back of a child with a stuck fish bone. The result was that the fish bone was slapped deeper into the esophagus, and they ended up going to the otolaryngology department to get it. In fact, if the fish bone is stuck and you can’t cough it out and swallow it, you shouldn’t pat it at all. It’s safest to send the fish bone directly to the hospital. There are also different opinions on the Heimlich. Some people say that children under one year old cannot use abdominal thrusts for fear of damaging internal organs, so they can only use back patting and chest compression techniques. Others say that as long as the intensity is controlled, it will be fine. We still follow the latest guidelines in training and teach different operating techniques according to age groups.

To be honest, these skills are not advanced medical knowledge at all, they are just for ordinary people. There is no need to pursue all-round skills. Even if you are proficient in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and Heimlich, they will be of great use in real situations.