Importance of Safety and First Aid

First Aid

Life is unpredictable, and emergency situations can arise at any time. First aid allows anyone to respond to a medical emergency with little or no formal training and no expensive equipment. The phrase "first aid" refers to the fact that even if the injuries are serious and do require expert medical attention, the initial intervention can "literally mean the difference between life and death," (BBC Health). It is not just in extreme situations that the need for first aid can arise. Daily tasks performed in the home can lead to situations that require some know-how in preventing infection, illness, or death. When dealing with serious life-threatening situations such as automobile accidents or assaults, and knowing the basics of first aid can save lives. Professional emergency responders will eventually be there to help, but cannot always arrive soon enough to prevent medical injury or death. Therefore, knowing the basic tools of first aid can reduce the severity of an emergency situation.

As the BBC points out, simple first aid interventions like "knowing the correct thing to do if someone has a nosebleed or cut" can prevent serious injury. Simple cuts can become seriously infected, and if left unattended the wound could fester to the point where surgery would be necessary. Therefore, first aid interventions can help save medical care costs as well as lives.

The Mayo Clinic Website lists dozens of first aid interventions that be used at home or on the go, and most of them require little to no training and little to no medical equipment. However, there are some first aid tools that should be handy in the home, car, or backpack. Sterile bandages and antiseptic ointments, for example, are necessary to properly treat cuts, bruises, and wounds that occur. Specific first aid equipment might be indicated for certain scenarios, to prevent problems. For example, a first aid kit taken on a hiking trip might include some anti-venom, antihistamine, antiseptic, bandages, and tourniquets.

However, tourniquets are not indicated for some injuries. A tourniquet should not be used when a person is bitten by a snake. I was hiking with a friend who was bitten. Thankfully, the snake was not poisonous, but at the time we both panicked. We did not know anything about snakes, or what type of snake it was that caused the injury. My instinct was to sort of wring the person's leg (the bite was on the ankle) to assist removal of the imagined poison. I also thought it would be wise to rinse the snakebite, and I doused his wound with my water. My friend was in discomfort, and wanted to "walk it off," and I did not argue with him. Finally, he reached for a swig of the flask he brought with him.

Thankfully, the snake was not poisonous because if it was, we had just done everything wrong. A snakebite from a poisonous snake means that venom has entered the blood stream. Therefore, the last thing a person who is bitten should do is walk around. Movement only serves to stimulate the circulatory system, which essentially ends up circulating the venom throughout the body. The next problem was rinsing the bite. It seemed logical at the time. After all, if he got cut by a thorny bush, it would be wise to rinse the cut. Yet rinsing encourages the spread of the venom. I should never have let him self-medicate with alcohol, either. The alcohol thins the blood. If the bite had been poisonous, my lack of first aid knowledge could have led to serious harm or even death of my friend.

After this happened, I vowed to learn a little bit about first aid. I had no idea that a situation would arise soon where I would be able to apply that knowledge to an emergency situation. Unlike the snakebite incident, this one was truly serious and life-threatening.

I heard the crash even before I saw it. Running over, I noticed that the two cars had hit each other head-on. Several bystanders were with me, assessing the situation and using their phones to dial emergency services. I carefully approached one of the cars, while another bystander went over to the other car. We both knew that more than half of all road-related deaths occur in the first few minutes following the crash, and that "up to 85% of these deaths could be prevented if first aid was given," (BBC Health).