What are the types of basic first aid skills?

As a practitioner of grassroots first aid science for 6 years, I can clearly say that the basic first aid skills suitable for ordinary people are centered around the three goals of "saving lives, reducing injuries, and preventing deterioration." In essence, they cover the core directions of cardiac arrest response, trauma treatment, common emergency response, and airway foreign body removal. There are no fancy contents, and they are all practical information that can be used after practicing it for two or three times.

The most core and most life-saving thing is the use of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED). After all, the golden rescue window for cardiac arrest is only 4 minutes, and it takes an average of ten minutes to wait for 120 to arrive at the scene. During this time, the operation of people around you is the key to saving lives. When I was doing a science road show in a business district, I happened to encounter someone who had a heart attack and fell to the ground. The young man who ran a milk tea shop next to me had just learned CPR in our class last month. He went up and continued to press for 3 minutes until the management came over with an AED. After defibrillation, the person regained consciousness. Speaking of which, the operation of the AED is really not as difficult as everyone thinks. There is a voice prompt when it is turned on, which is equivalent to a talking heart "emergency power bank". It will automatically determine whether the patient needs defibrillation and will not accidentally injure the rescuer. There is now a consensus in the industry that if ordinary people dare not do artificial respiration, just continuous chest compressions can have a good effect without any psychological burden.

Unless there is something as dangerous as cardiac arrest, the most common injuries encountered in daily life are bruises, cuts, burns, and sprains, which correspond to the skills related to trauma management. The industry has been arguing for a long time about whether to teach ordinary people complex bandaging and fracture fixation techniques. Many people think that if ordinary people without repeated training cannot bandage well, it will cause secondary injuries. It is better to focus on teaching compression and hemostasis, the correct posture for showering with scalds, and the taboos of carrying patients with suspected fractures/spinal injuries. This is how we arrange science popularization in the community now - - If you really encounter a bleeding wound, just hold a clean cloth and press it firmly on the wound until it stops bleeding. It is more effective than any fancy bandage. Last month, an aunt who had attended the class told me that she met a young man who broke his arm while riding a shared bicycle. She pressed the wound and sent him to the clinic. The doctor said that if she had not held it down at the time, the young man might have fainted.

There are also situations where there seems to be no trauma, but the person suddenly feels uncomfortable and cannot stand, which corresponds to the emergency skills of common critical illnesses, such as stroke, heat stroke, anaphylactic shock, hypoglycemia coma, etc. There was an aunt in the community who suddenly couldn't move half of her body while performing a square dance. The old sister next to her wanted to help her up and sit up. An owner who had attended our class happened to stop her and said that if a person with a stroke moved casually, it might aggravate cerebral hemorrhage. He called 120 first and just turned her head sideways to prevent choking on vomit. In the end, the aunt was taken to the hospital and recovered very well. The doctor said that not moving around at that time was a big help. By the way, there is also a small controversy here. Some people said before that ordinary people should memorize the FAST principles for judging strokes. Some people said that it is too academic to memorize it. It is better to memorize the three most intuitive manifestations of "sudden face twisting, inability to move one hand or foot, and slurred speech." Just don't move it around and don't give medicine randomly. It's enough.

Finally, there is the Heimlich maneuver that everyone has heard of a lot, which is specifically designed to deal with airway obstruction caused by foreign bodies. It must be learned especially if there are children or the elderly at home. There was a parent who picked up his child from school before. The child ate a lollipop on the way and his trachea became stuck and his face turned purple. The security guard of the community next to him happened to have learned Heimlich in our property first aid training. He picked up the child and punched his upper abdomen twice before spitting out the candy. It only took about ten seconds. I really can’t imagine the consequences if I had to wait for the ambulance to arrive. I often tell the residents who come to attend the class that there is no need to pursue perfection in learning first aid. Being able to remember which move to use at the critical moment and being brave enough to reach out is better than anything else. After all, the ten minutes before 120 comes is the most precious life-saving time.