What are the contents of basic first aid skills?

The essence of basic first aid skills is a general emergency response capability developed around the three principles of "saving lives first, treating injuries later, and avoiding secondary injuries." The core covers three major scenarios: immediate fatal emergency treatment, standardized trauma treatment, common emergencies and minor illnesses, and environmental injury response. There is no too advanced threshold, and ordinary people can master the core points by participating in formal training in half a day.

I have been training the community first aid volunteer team for almost five years. Last winter in the community, 72-year-old Uncle Zhang had a heart attack and fell to the ground when he went downstairs to take out the garbage. Onlookers panicked at first and tried to help him up. Fortunately, the nurse who lived in the same unit rushed over first and touched the carotid artery to confirm that there was no pulse. Immediately call someone to call 120, go to the property to get an AED (automated external defibrillator), lay flat on the spot and perform chest compressions. By the time the ambulance arrives, your spontaneous heartbeat has been restored. This is the core basic first aid skill - cardiopulmonary resuscitation and AED use. Many people think that AEDs are professional equipment and dare not touch them. In fact, the AEDs now installed in business districts, subway stations, and residential areas are all fully automatic. They have voice prompts for operation when they are turned on. Even people who have not been trained in the system can operate them by following the prompts. Last year, a high school sophomore in our district used an AED to save his aunt who had collapsed in a shopping mall. At that time, he had only attended one emergency science class at school.

A more common immediate fatal situation than cardiac arrest is airway obstruction by foreign bodies. The Heimlich maneuver used in this case is also a must-learn part of basic first aid. Last month, a 2-year-old neighbor's child swallowed half a piece of jelly and got stuck in his throat. Grandma patted his back for a long time, but it got stuck even more, and his face turned purple. It happened that the child's father had participated in our training before, so he hugged the child from behind, put his fist on the two horizontal fingers above the navel and pushed it up three times quickly, and the jelly spurted out, which lasted only ten seconds. Many people think that the Heimlich maneuver is only for children. In fact, it is not uncommon for adults to get stuck in the airway with large pieces of meat or bones while eating and become speechless. If you learn it, you can really save yourself and your family.

After talking about these skills that can immediately save lives, let’s talk about the treatment of trauma and minor illnesses that are most encountered in daily life. Many people think that this is not first aid, but in fact, if done wrongly, it can easily cause trouble. Last month, a young man fell while riding an electric scooter. His arm was bleeding and deformed with suspected fractures. A kind person passing by took toilet paper to cover the wound and stuffed the exposed bone stubble back. When he got to the hospital, the doctor said he almost caused irreversible nerve damage. The core of trauma treatment in basic first aid is actually very simple: if there is active bleeding, just use a clean gauze or towel to press it firmly. Do not sprinkle toothpaste, ash, or medicated powder on the wound. Do not move the suspected fracture. Just find a cardboard or branch to fix it. If there is a broken finger or limb, put it in a clean bag. Place an ice pack around it to cool down and send it to the hospital together with the person. Do not soak it directly in water or ice.

At this point, some people may ask, do the old methods of pinching people's chins and pinching tigers' mouths count as basic first aid? In fact, there is currently no completely unified conclusion in the industry. According to traditional first aid experience, it is believed that painful stimulation can arouse people with syncope. Many clinicians have also reported that for simple vasovagal syncope, pinching people can indeed speed up the recovery of patients. However, the current mainstream international first aid guidelines do not list it as a recommended operation. The core reason is that many people come forward. Just pinch the patient's philtrum, but forget to judge the patient's consciousness and breathing first. If it is a patient with cardiac arrest, pinching the philtrum for 10 minutes is useless. Instead, it wastes the golden 4 minutes of compression time. When we train, we usually tell the students to judge the respiratory pulse first. If they are really sure it is just ordinary syncope, then consider using pain stimulation. Don't just pinch them.

In addition, basic first aid covers things like giving a sugar cube if someone faints due to hypoglycemia, flushing cold water at room temperature for 15 to 20 minutes immediately after a burn, getting rabies vaccine if a cat or dog scratches or breaks the skin, quickly moving to a cool place to replenish salt water if suffering from heat stroke, removing foreign matter from the mouth before rescuing someone from drowning, etc. There is nothing too complicated to do. The core is not to rely on unorthodox methods, and make sure not to cause trouble before helping. What I am most afraid of as a trainee in the past few years is that students will say "I am not a doctor, and it is useless to learn it." When something really happens, the average arrival time of 120 in most areas is more than 15 minutes, and the golden rescue time is only a few minutes. Knowing a little basic first aid can really save a life.