What are the basic first aid skills?

The basic first aid skills that ordinary people with non-medical backgrounds need to master are centered on the three principles of "saving lives, reducing injuries, and preventing secondary injuries." They mainly include cardiac arrest treatment, trauma emergency treatment, first aid for airway foreign body obstruction, response to common accidental injuries, and basic injury assessment. Most of them can be mastered after one or two exercises and can be used in critical situations.

I have been doing community first aid training for almost 4 years. What impressed me the most was what happened at the gate of the community last spring. An old man suddenly fell down and couldn't breathe while buying groceries. Onlookers either hurriedly waited for 120, or tried to give him Jiuxin pills. Fortunately, a high school student next to him who had just participated in our training rushed up to do chest compressions. By the time the ambulance arrived, the old man was already breathing weakly. When it comes to cardiopulmonary resuscitation, there are indeed different views in the industry: Regarding sudden cardiac death in adults, if ordinary witnesses feel worried about artificial respiration, just continuous chest compressions can have a good effect. There is no need to worry about having to do all the steps, which will delay the golden 4 minutes of rescue. ； However, if the cardiac arrest is caused by drowning or suffocation, it is still recommended that capable rescuers add artificial respiration, and the success rate of rescue will be higher.

In fact, what we encounter more frequently than cardiac arrest are daily bumps and bruises and bleeding. Last month, a parent came to consult with a child who broke his knee. He said that the old man sprinkled plant ash to stop the bleeding, but the wound became infected and suppurated. Normally, small epidermal bleeding can be stopped by pressing clean gauze or clean towel on the wound for three to five minutes. If there is large arterial bleeding in the limbs, you need to use a tourniquet to tie the end of the wound close to the heart. Remember to remember the time of tying and loosen it for 2 minutes every 40 minutes or so. Otherwise, the limbs are prone to necrosis due to ischemia for too long, which will not help.

There is also the Heimlich maneuver that everyone often sees in short videos, which is also a must. A while ago, my relative's child got stuck in his throat after eating jelly, and his face turned red from holding it in. The parents patted his back for a long time but there was no response. I rushed over and used the Heimlich maneuver on the back of my waist and pushed it up three times, and the jelly spit out immediately. There is also something that many people don’t know here. If a pregnant woman or a very fat person gets stuck in the throat, the ordinary hugging method of pushing the abdomen does not require much force. Rapid impact on the lower half of the chest is more effective. If you are alone at home and a foreign object is stuck, you can find a hard chair back or table corner and push against the abdomen a few times, which can also be used in emergencies.

As for common accidents such as burns and scalds and poisoning by accidental ingestion, the treatment principle is actually simple. For burns and scalds, don’t just put on toothpaste or soy sauce. Just rinse with running cold water for 15 to 20 minutes to cool down. Don’t open small blisters yourself to avoid infection. If the blisters are too big or the burns and scalds are large, go to the hospital directly after flushing. If you are poisoned by eating something by mistake, don’t induce vomiting, especially if you drink toilet cleaner, strong acid or alkali, etc. Inducing vomiting will cause secondary burns to the digestive tract. When calling 120, it is more useful to explain clearly what you have eaten, how much you have eaten, and how long you have eaten.

The most common problem I have encountered in training in the past few years is "I am not a doctor, so it is useless to learn it." This is not true. The prime time for first aid is only a few minutes, and the ambulance cannot catch up. Ordinary people can master these basic skills and really save their families and the lives of people around them at critical times. There is no need to pursue complicated operations, as long as it is enough.