This document provides information on first aid principles and how to handle life-threatening and non-life threatening situations. It discusses evaluating the scene, prioritizing treatment, and only providing care that one is trained to deliver. Life-threatening situations covered include obstructed airways, heart attacks, serious wounds, shock, poisoning, and burns. Non-life threatening situations include bone fractures. It also reviews dressings, bandages, and bandaging procedures.

2. What is …..?
 First Aid – the emergency care given to a
victim of an accident or a sudden illness,
required immediately and must continue
until advanced medical help is available.
 Can be simple like helping someone clean and
bandage a minor wound to performing CPR until
EMS arrives.
 CPR – cardiopulmonary resuscitation

3. General Principles of First
Aid
 1. Never panic!
 Take a few slow deep breaths and look around to
make sure the area is safe
 Determine what resources are available and what is
needed (AED, splints, EMS…)
 2. Evaluate the Situation
 Check the victim’s level of consciousness, open the
victim's airway and check for breathing, check for
pulse and bleeding
 3. Is the victim in a safe environment,
free from more danger?

4. General Principles of First
Aid
 4. Determine the Priorities of treatment
 Which condition requires the most immediate care
 Urgent care for life – threatening situations:
stopped breathing, heart attack, shock, serious
wounds, poisoning, serious burns
 Non-life threatening issues: fracture of arm or leg,
minor contusions or lacerations (know definitions
 5. Decide what care is needed and do only
what you are trained to do
 Good Samaritan Law
 6. Call 911 or send for help

5. Life Threatening
Situations
 Obstructed Airway, choking
(closed airway, stopped or not breathing)
 When an object blocks the airway leading to the
lungs

 Partial obstruction – some air can be moved. Do
not interfere with coughing or try to dig out the
object
 Complete obstruction – no air can be moved.
Victim is suddenly unable to breathe, cough or
speak, clutches neck, or is struggling to breathe

6. Life Threatening
Situations
 Obstructed Airway, choking
(closed airway, stopped or not breathing)
 What to do for a conscious victim …
 1. Ask “Are you choking?”
 Observe victim coughing or wheezing. Do not interfere
if good air exchange is present
 2. Give abdominal thrusts….
 Videos
 Adult conscious
 Adult unconscious
 Child

7. Life Threatening
Situations
 Heart Attack
 Early warning signs
 Squeezing feeling in the chest,
pressure, or tightness
 “feels like a band is around chest”
 “feels like an elephant is sitting on my
chest”
 Persistent discomfort that spreads
to the shoulders, arm, neck, jaw,
or across the chest
 Sweating, nausea, vomiting,
shortness of breath, or feeling
faint

8. Life Threatening
Situations
 Heart Attack
 What do you do?
 Call for advanced life support (EMS
or doctor depending on the
setting)
 Get an AED
 Monitor the symptoms until help
arrives.
 Heart and breathing may stop and
the patient may need CPR

9. Life Threatening
Situations
 Serious Wounds
 Life threatening due to heavy bleeding
 Bleeding that spurts is from an artery
 Venous bleeding is also serious
 Victim will bleed to death if the bleeding is not
controlled

10. Life Threatening
Situations
 Serious Wounds
 What to do……
 1. Call or send for help
 2. Follow procedures for preventing shock
 3. Apply direct pressure with your gloved hand and
some type of dressing or gauze pad.
 A shirt or towel will work if nothing else is available
 4. Elevate the wounded area if you do not think
there are broken bones
 5. if these do not work apply pressure to the
appropriate pressure point above and on the same
limb of the wound
 6. If the dressing becomes saturated add dry
dressing over the saturated bandage
 7. When bleeding is under control slowly release
the pressure point and lower the limb, but keep
direct pressure over the dressing

11. Pressure Points to Control
Bleeding

12. Life Threatening
Situations
 Shock
 Caused by major loss of body fluid or blood causing
the body cells and major organs to be deprived of
oxygen
 A person can be appropriately treated for injury but
still die of shock because of the fluid or blood loss

13. Life Threatening
Situations
 Shock
 Procedure 13.7 page 298

14. Life Threatening
Situations
 Poisoning
 Ingestion, inhalation, absorption, or injection of a
harmful substance
 Can cause sudden collapse, vomiting, and difficult
breathing
 Look around the victim for possible causes of
poisoning as you are treating him or her
 An unconscious victim may be convulsing or
vomiting which is why you lay the victim on their
side

15. Life Threatening
Situations
 Poisoning
 Procedure 13.8 page 298
 Procedure 13.9 page 299

16. Life Threatening
Situations
 Burns
 See page 299 for pictures of severity of burns
 Severity of Burns
 1st degree- superficial or surface burns
 2nd degree – partial thickness, deeper or just below the
surface of the skin. Blistering occurs
 3rd degree – full thickness, destroys both surface and
underlying tissue, destroys nerve endings so victim
may not feel pain in that area
 Burns around the nose and mouth can mean the
airway is burned

17. Life Threatening
Situations
 Treating burns
 Procedure 13.10 page 300

18. Non-Life Threatening
Situations
 Bone Fractures
 Closed fracture – a broken bone that stays
inside the body
 Symptoms – swelling, pain, change in the color of
the skin, deformity
 Determine mechanism of injury – did they fall, did
something fall on them? Did they hear a “snap”?
 Open Fracture – when the broken bones
comes through the skin
 If possible splint the affected area and call
for medical assistance

19. Dressings and Bandages
 Dressings cover wounds and help keep
infectious bacteria out
 Dressings are used to apply direct
pressure to control bleeding
 Bandages hold dressings in place

20. Dressings and Bandages
 Principles of Bandaging
 Always wear gloves and follow Standard Precautions
 Never tie a bandage around the neck, taping is safer
 The bandage needs to be tight enough to hold the
dressing in place but not tight enough to stop
circulation
 Check skin temperature. If cold then bandage may be
cutting off circulation. You should be able to fit one
finger under the bandage

21. Dressings and Bandages
 Principles of Bandaging
 When applying these to arms or legs leave the finders
and toes exposed so that you can watch for
discoloration and swelling
 Loosen bandages if the patient complains of
numbness or tingling
 Do not remove dressing once it has been applied. If
blood soaks through, add another layer of dressings
and secure the bandage

22. Dressings and Bandages
 Principles of Bandaging
 Procedures
 Copy the following procedures into your notes
 Procedure 13.11 pg 302
Applying a splint
 Procedure 13.14 pg 304
Circular bandaging of a small leg or arm wound
 Procedure 13.15 pg 305
Spiral bandaging of a large wound
 Procedure 13.16 pg 306
Bandaging of an ankle or foot wound