justlife

During the last four days I have been undertaking a first aid course. I am now a qualified first aider; practiced in dealing with shock, severe wounds, broken bones, and even resuscitation.

I hope I’ll never get an opportunity to put any of this new knowledge into action; though I do wonder how I would cope were I in a real situation. I’ve always been somewhat squeamish after all. If, a year down the line, I encounter someone on the ground before me whose life hangs in the balance would I know what to do?

Who can say?

At least I have the head knowledge to give me a good chance.

For anyone unfortunate enough to be in such a situation there are three very good practices that can be applied:

Be Safe

Injuring yourself will not help the situation. Although it may seem that the most important thing to do is to get to the injured party you must first check for anything that might endanger you or them. Remove anything you might trip over and anything sharp as your first priority to enable you to assess the situation appropriately.

Stay Calm

Some situations are not nice to walk in on; the tendency can be to panic. Conquering this initial reflex and keeping yourself calm could, one day, mean the difference between life and death. Take a few seconds to inhale deeply to clear your mind before assessing the situation.

Get Help

If you don’t know how to help the person yourself you absolutely must get help for them. Although it might be awful leaving the person where they are it will be worse for them if no help is coming. In these days of mobile phones help is generally closer than it used to be, but you need to take the time to make that call.

These three simple things will give the casualty the best chance of recovery, or even survival. If you forget every piece of knowledge that you’ve ever known about first aid, these three things will still help you to make a difference in a dangerous situation.

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