The emergency first aid skills that we all should learn – words Alan Woods

Throughout our lives, many of us have picked up a range of survival skills and learned some basic things to do in the event of a crisis. But, would you know what to do if the person sitting or standing next to you began to experience a medical emergency?

Basic first aid skills are something that we should all learn at some point during our lives, as they can often be the difference between a good or bad result during a life-or-death situation.

Knowing basic first aid skills can genuinely save lives and prevent medical problems from worsening to cause further issues or even causing death. The great thing about emergency first aid skills is that everybody can learn them – there’s no need to be a health professional or emergency response technician in order to successfully save somebody’s life. Of course, it’s always good to remember that before performing any first aid on somebody, you’ll want to ensure that help is on the way by getting in touch with the emergency services.

CPR

When you think of live-saving first aid techniques that everybody should be aware of how to perform, the first one that probably comes to your mind is CPR. For somebody who has collapsed and gone into cardiac arrest, having somebody with them who knows how to perform CPR and can do so until the ambulance arrives can often be the one factor that saves their life. If you are interested in learning CPR, the best thing to do is take a class in order to ensure that you have the right training and know how to perform the technique correctly. These CPR classes in Phoenix, AZ are great for anybody who’s hoping to learn some basic emergency first aid skills or simply wants to refresh their knowledge.

Responding to a Heart Attack

Although CPR is the appropriate response for a patient who has had a heart attack and subsequently gone into cardiac arrest rendering them unconscious, this situation isn’t always the case when a heart attack occurs. A lot of the time, heart attack symptoms are nowhere near as dramatic as going into cardiac arrest, and those who are showing the symptoms of a heart attack could simply seem like they are having chest pains, suffering from heartburn, or even having an asthma or panic attack.

Understanding how to recognize the common symptoms of heart attacks is important, so that you know you will be able to offer valuable help and support to somebody who is experiencing one. According to the Mayo Clinic, offering an aspirin tablet to anybody over the age of 16 and with no known allergies to aspirin can help to reduce damage to the heart and alleviate the symptoms of a heart attack whilst you wait for the emergency services to arrive.

Choking

Knowing how to help somebody who is choking can be the deciding factor when it comes to whether or not they survive it, therefore this skill is an important one that everybody should strive to learn. In restaurants, you have probably seen posters and other instructional guides letting people know what to do if they come across somebody who is choking on their food. But, what do you do if you’re elsewhere, and there are no instructional guides or posters around?

Bear in mind that when it comes to first aid for choking, there are different procedures for infants, children and adults. In adults, it’s appropriate to conduct the Heimlich maneuver, which involves wrapping your arms around the patient’s abdominal area from behind and performing abdominal thrusts to dislodge the substance. Before doing this, you should use the heel of your hand to give five blows to the person’s back. In small children and infants, abdominal thrusts are not performed.

Bleeding

Although small cuts and scrapes can often cause us to lose a little bit of blood, heavy bleeding can be a life threatening experience. If you come across a patient who is seriously hurt and losing a lot of blood, knowing how to respond to this with first aid techniques can often help to prevent their situation from worsening and allow you to successfully slow the blood loss. When possible, wounded areas should be raised as much as possible in order to slow down the blood flow to that particular area. Along with this, applying pressure to the wound with a sterile pad or dressing will also help to stop bleeding.

Knowing basic first aid could one day mean that you are able to save somebody’s life, so everybody should learn these crucial emergency first aid skills.