Dangerous Misconceptions about First Aid

It doesn’t matter where and when they came from, but almost everyone has some knowledge about first aid. Alas, in most cases, this set of knowledge is a mixture of stereotypes and rumors, the application in practice of which is not only useless, but also dangerous.
1. Himself perish, and comrade help out
This stereotype is tightly hammered into the heads of the older generation with movies, books and simply the ideology of the Soviet era, which desperately praised heroism and self-sacrifice. No doubt, these qualities are important, valuable and sometimes even necessary. But in real life, on the street, in the city or in nature, following the learned rules can cost the life of both the hero and the saved.
2. Get by any means
We continue the topic of roads and accidents. You will not believe how common the following scenario is in our country: an ambulance and rescuers arrive at the scene of the accident, and the victims are already removed from the crumpled cars, laid in shade and filled with water. At the same time, voluntary rescuers pulled people from their arms and legs and, in addition to the injuries they had already received, caught up a couple of quite harmless ones, such as the deformation of a broken spine. So the person would have sat in the car, waited for help, the specialists would have carefully dismantled this car, put it on a stretcher and handed it to the doctors. Six months in the hospital – and again on his feet. And now not. Now – lifelong disability. And all this is not special. All of the desire to help. So – do not. No need to portray lifeguards.
3. Tongue to the collar
Remember this bike? There is a pin in the army first aid package, and it is necessary in order to pin the language of the unconscious person to his own collar so that he (the tongue) does not sunk and does not block the airways. And it did, and did. Good picture – so wake up from fainting, but with the tongue out? Yes, in an unconscious state a person always has a tongue. Yes, it must be borne in mind and deal with it. But not the same barbaric method! Have you ever, by the way, tried to get a person’s tongue out of his mouth? Not? Try it. An opening is waiting for you – it turns out that it is soft, slippery and in no way wants to remain stretched out. And it is unhygienic. To release the airway from the sunken tongue, a person simply turn to the side. All – airways open. So, by the way, it is recommended to do with all the familiar and unfamiliar drunkards sleeping on the street. Put it on its side – and nothing, oversleep.
4. Plait on the neck
By the way, this is quite possible. Plait on the neck is applied, but not just like that, but through the arm. But it’s not about that. With the harness of our people, the relationship is quivering and tender. He is in every first-aid kit, and therefore, with any heavy bleeding, citizens rush to burn. At the same time, some people even remember that in summer a tourniquet can be applied for two hours, and in winter – for one. And they know that venous blood is darker in color than arterial blood. But it often turns out that for some reason a deep cut is not the most life-threatening, and it turns out that the bloodless limb cannot be saved on arrival at the hospital. Remember – a tourniquet is used only to stop arterial bleeding. How to distinguish it? Well, of course, not the color of blood.
First, the shades of red and so it is not always distinguishable, and then there is a stressful situation. Easy to make a mistake. However, it is the arterial bleeding that you learn without difficulty. If we translate our typical pressure of 120 to 80 in the atmosphere, then we get about 1.4. That is, almost one and a half. Now imagine that water comes from a narrow tube through a small hole under the pressure of one and a half of the atmosphere. Figured what the fountain will be? That’s it. It is precisely by the pressure and height of the blood fountain that arterial bleeding is unmistakably recognized. And here it is impossible to hesitate, life goes out of man with every second. So do not look for a rope or rope, take off your belt. Immediately quickly squeeze, even with your finger. Where? In places where the arteries are closest to the surface of the body and less covered – groin, armpits. Your task is to press the artery, wait for the bleeding to stop, and only then fit the harness in place. And as soon as possible in the hospital. By the way, the tourniquet is put on clothes so that it can be seen. It is better to write a note with the time of application of the harness with a marker … on the victim’s forehead. So more likely that information will not be lost, and the poor guy will surely forgive you this body art.
But venous bleeding – even very abundant – is better to stop with a tight pressure bandage. It does not matter if it is soaked through with blood – put another layer on top. This, among other things, will allow the doctor to assess the severity of blood loss by the thickness of the dressing.
5. Burn the burn grease
Imagine that we are 80% water, which, among other properties, also has heat capacity. What is a burn, if we take into account these data? A certain amount of heat gets on the skin and goes deeper from its surface into the body tissues, which readily accumulate joules.