What is First Aid?

First aid is the care first given to a person

who becomes injured or ill until medical
care can be supplied.
Benefits of Learning First Aid

 May save the life of one’s family,

friends or workmates
 Be confident in an emergency
 Acquire new skills
 Provides a safe working environment
 Improves –employee- employer
relation
 Assessment

1. Ensure your safety

2. Make certain that the scene is safe for
the patient
3. Find out if the patient is responsive
4. Assess the patient for life-threatening
conditions. (A.B.C)
Assessment of the Casualty
Mental Status:
A Alert

V Responsive to Verbal stimuli

P Responsive to Painful stimuli

U Unresponsive
Assessment of the Casualty
Does the patient respond?

Y es N o
• Leave in the position that you SHOUT FOR HELP
find them (as long as not in
further
danger)
•Get help
•Re-assess regularly
 Open Airway
The next step is to open the airway
 Tilt head (avoid tilting the head if
trauma to the neck is suspected)
 Open the mouth

 Clear any obstruction from the

mouth

 Lift the chin

 Check for Breathing
Once you have made sure that the airway is clear you must check that
the casualty is breathing by:

 Look for chest movements

 Listening for sounds of breathing
 Feeling for breath on your cheek

These should be done for 10 seconds (count out loud)

 Check for Breathing
Is the Patient Breathing?

•Loosen his clothes.

•Put him in the recovery position.

This keeps the tongue forward and the mouth low so that the airway is kept
clear and he can breath
•Stay with him, watching all the time in case the breathing or heart stops.
Recovery Position
 Check for Breathing
Is the Patient Breathing?
Start mouth to mouth breathing
for one minute and …

Call 888
•Ask for ambulance.
•Describe the situation.
•Give your location.
•Return quickly to the casualty and start mouth to mouth
breathing .
Mouth to Mouth Breathing (Kiss of Life)

 Open the airway and keep it

open
 Pinch the nose closed

 Achieve an airtight seal with your

mouth over the casualty’s mouth

 Give two full breaths

 After these 2 full breaths, check
his pulse to see if his heart is
beating
Is the Patient’s Heart Beating?

How to check for a heart beat

Can you feel the carotid pulse?
Put two fingers in the groove at the side of his Adam’s apple and press
gently.

If you can’t feel a pulse after 5 seconds then his heart has stooped
beating
Is the Patient’s Heart Beating?

 Continue mouth to mouth breathing giving

12 breaths per minute (one every 5 seconds)
until breathing starts again.
 Put the person in the recovery position and
stay with him in case the breathing stops.
 Is the Patient’s Heart Beating?

Start Heart Resuscitation

(Never attempt heart resuscitation if the heart is beating)

Heart Resuscitation (CPR)
If the casualty does not have a
pulse:
 Locate the breast bone

 Start chest compression at a

rate of 60 - 80 per minute

 Give 15 compressions then 2

breaths.
 Repeat and continue until help
arrives.
Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation

Remember ABC

 A Open the Airway

 B Check the victim’s Breathing
 C Assess Circulation
Choking

Universal Sign of Choking

 Choking Patients
A foreign body can block the airway or cause a muscular
spasm.
Signs of choking include:
 Sudden airway obstruction.
 Difficulty in breathing and speaking.
 Vigorous attempts to dislodge the obstruction by
coughing
Other signs might include:
 Cyanosis.
 Unconsciousness.
 Choking
Dealing with Adults

If patient is conscious and breathing, despite evidence of

obstruction:
 Encourage the patient to continue coughing but do nothing else

If the obstruction is complete and the casualty shows signs of

exhaustion or becomes cyanosed.
If the patient is conscious:
 Stand to the side and slightly behind him
 Support the chest with one hand and lean the casualty well
forwards
 Give up to five back blows between the shoulders blades with the
heel of the other hand
 Choking
If back blows fail, carry out
abdominal thrusts. This is known
as the Heimlich maneuver:

 Stand behind the patient and put

both arms around the upper part
of the abdomen
 Clench your fist and grasp it with
your other hand
 Pull sharply inwards and upwards
wit the aim of producing a sudden
expulsion of air, together with the
foreign body, from the airway
Heimlich Maneuver
 Unconscious Choking

Open the Airway

 Tilt the head and lift the chin
 Remove any visible objects from mouth using finger
sweeps
 If this fails, give a series of abdominal thrusts with the
patient supine on the floor
 Alternatively, chest thrusts similar to the technique of
chest compressions during cardiac resuscitation may be
successful
Unconscious Chocking
 Bleeding
 To keep the body functioning, and to keep the
organs supplied with oxygen the body must
have an adequate blood volume and pressure.
 Bleeding, or hemorrhage, poses a threat by
causing both the volume and the pressure of the
blood to decrease.
 Bleeding is one of the commonest causes of
death in accidents
 Bleeding
 Bleeding, or hemorrhage, is classified as
either external or internal
 External bleeding can also be classified
according to which of the three types of
blood vessel is injured or losing blood:
 Arterial Bleeding
 Venous Bleeding
 Capillary Bleeding
 Arterial Bleeding
 Damage to an artery
is characterized by
bright red blood
which can ‘spurt’
with heart beat
 Venous Bleeding

 Damage to veins
appears as a darker
red and tends to
flow
 Capillary Bleeding
 Capillary damage is
associated with
wounds close to the
skin and is a bright
red and ‘oozes’
 Control Bleeding
Protect yourself with medical gloves if
possible.
2. Apply a dressing on the wound and
press firmly against the wound with
your hand
3. Elevate the wound above the level of
the heart if possible.
Control Bleeding (cont..)
If bleeding doesn’t stop:

 Apply additional dressing

 Squeeze artery against bone by using
pressure points