I remember being inordinately proud of having learned how to tie a tourniquet when I was 9, and secretly hoping for an opportunity to do it in real life, until it occurred to me that if things had gotten to the point where everyone had to count on a nine-year old to save the day, then it would be a bad day indeed.
I can do CPR, but that’s pretty much the only other first aid skill I have.
Suppose that you suddenly found yourself in the midst of carnage - maybe the aftermath of a shooting, or some building on fire, or someone found unconscious for unknown reasons - how much first aid would you be able to effectively administer right there on the spot, off your head, with no assistance from consulting Google or anyone else?
I’m 40 years removed from any formal first-aid training that I’ve received – it was part of the curriculum in our science class in 7th or 8th grade, and I got the First Aid merit badge as a Boy Scout at about that same time.
I imagine that a bit of it would come back to me – I’d know enough to not move someone if they’re injured (unless their current position put them in more immediate danger), to do compression on a severely bleeding wound, etc., but that’s probably about it.
I took the Emergency Medical Technician Basic class and passed the Illinois license exam about 15 years ago. I had graduated college with an engineering degree shortly before but I learned far more useful stuff in that EMT-B class than in any other college class.
I don’t remember all of the details but feel confident I could respond to a lot of bystander incidents like choking, not breathing (drowning, electrocution or MI), mild trauma, etc.
That’s no longer taught. It’s not very effective and is more likely to end up with two patients. I recommend a wilderness first aid course if people plan on being out in the woods. A lot of common F/A is no longer supported by data from the field
I know CPR but recently let my certificate expire. I still remember tourniquets and basic first aid from Boy Scouts. Never did learn how to do a tracheotomy though - the doctor I work under brags about his being able to do one on the spot with a pen in case someone chokes. Like the scene in that new movie, Nobody
9-1-1 operators can walk you through some basic first aid, if you’re able, while help is on the way.
One thing to take into consideration is the law in your jurisdiction. For example all 50 U.S. states have some form of good Samaritan law, but not all states extend protection to people who haven’t been trained/certified. Specifically, in Missouri and Kansas good Samaritan laws seem to apply to medical professionals/people certified for first aid, and not laypeople.
I’ve had a lot of first aid training, I would still want to cross check on my phone though before doing CPR or anything else. I’m pretty sure my CPR cert is expired. I think they’re only good for 2 years and mine is 4 years old now.
I got trained in the Navy, again while working at a hospital, then several of my jobs over the decades had first aid training and I always volunteered for it. AED & CPR plus general first aid.
We used to get trained in “artificial respiration” when I was a kid taking swimming lessons forty years ago. It would be best all round if no one tried to drown in my presence.
My girlfriend (a hospital physical assistant) once demonstrated CPR on me (when we were alone, obviously). She pinched my nose and did the CPR breathing in my mouth and I was shocked at how forcefully my lungs expanded; it would definitely be bad had she breathed further.
I take Wilderness First Aid every few years because I lead trips for a few organizations. It pays to refresh. I’ve treated some broken bones, many cuts and burns, lots of hypothermia and heat injuries.
had lots of classes and training over the years, but a lot of it is outdated. ( is it just compressions now and not resuscitation or the other way around) I could do a splint, pressure bandage or tourniquet, bandage a sucking chest wound, and ( probably) administer an iv, if I had one, I know to not move someone any more than needed to assure survival, how to treat heat injury (including restraining cramped/spasming limbs to prevent more severe injury before the real medics arrive). yeah you might survive if you need my help, probably, but other than the splint and pressure bandage a few times, I’ve never actually used any of that since I got out of the army
I know to do CPR to the tempo of Stayin’ Alive, splint limbs, perform Heimlich maneuver, and attempt to stop bleeding by compression, or worst-case, tourniquet. Not sure if I could/should attempt to manually dislodge a foreign object from the windpipe. And I always have a couple bandaids in my purse!
It is just compressions now for non-professionals. If you have doubts, call 911 on speaker and they are trained to talk you through compressions and any other first aid you might need til the EMTs get there.
Different first aid training organizations vary what they teach but the most recent medical evidence is that rescue breathing accomplishes relatively little in terms of oxygenation of the blood. It you are giving CPR alone you are better off just doing the chest compressions and skipping the breathing (strong compressions will still result in some gas exchange although again how well that translates into blood oxygenation is questionable). At sea level, the blood contains a surfeit of oxygen and as long as blood is circulating (which is the point of doing compressions) a healthy patient can maintain sufficient oxygen perfusion for around ten minutes before suffering cerebral hypoxia; beyond that some amount of brain damage is virtually inevitable without high pressure oxygen. From experience, I can say that ten minutes of full force chest compressions is pretty exhausting even without rescue breathing.
I maintain a WMI/NOLS Wilderness First Responder certification (wanted to do WEMT but part of maintaining cert is actually working as an EMT), as well as having done a couple of emergency tactical medicine (e.g. “Stop the Bleed” type courses) for work. The fundamentals of how to examine and manage a patient have largely remained the same over the years but the details of some treatments and assessments have changed enough that it is definitely worth it to recert even though I don’t have a current vocational need for it. In particular, the guidance on assessing and treating potential spinal injuries and TBI has evolved as well as splinting techniques. I got my WFR after participating in several rescue/extractions so I’d know better what to do and how to communicate with professional EMS, and since then my biggest emergencies have been dehydration and minor burns, so I guess it also wards off trouble. (Burn Gel is effing magic, BTW; all of my medkits have multiple packages of it because aside from scrapes and topical poisons it is the main injury experienced by backpackers usually grabbing what they assume is a cold stove or bowl.)
Heimlich was kind of a crank and the eponymous maneuver has not been recommended by the American Red Cross or the American Heart Association for quite a while. While correctly performed abdominal thrusts are not dangerous for adults, they are often difficult to get the patient into correct position and can be dangerous on children where overly aggressive and improperly performed thrusts risk organ damage. The back slap method has been found to be just effective although ARC teaches “Five and Five” (five back slaps followed by abdominal thrusts).
You should definitely not attempt any manual extraction of a foreign object from the trachea; this is an intrusive technique that would not be generally covered by a “Good Samaritan Law” for a non-professional, and the odds are good that without proper training you’ll either lodge it further down or damage the trachea in the attempt. Most oversized food items will simply dislodge on their own with aggressive coughing, and sharp items like bone fragments, while uncomfortable, will not generally prevent breathing in the time it takes for EMS to arrive. It should go without saying that you also should not attempt to perform a tracheotomy (the technique had an unfortunate but brief popularity in response to being performed on numerous 'Seventies television shows) or insert an oropharyngeal airway without the appropriate training and EMT-level certification.
Tourniquet application is something of a contentious topic. The former logic was that applying a tourniquet generally resulting in the affected limb losing nerve function and often having to be amputated, but with the wide availability of purpose-designed tourniquets like the CAT and SOF (thanks to all of our recent experience sending people to be shot in the sandbox and Afghanistan) effective tourniquets can be applied without risking permanent damage like improvised “windmill” tourniquets or ineffectually wrapping a belt around a limb, and their effectiveness in preventing death by exsanguination is well demonstrated in the case of gunshot wounds, severe automotive or industrial accidents, and so forth. However, if you don’t see arterial bleeding, it probably isn’t necessary and can complicate treatment, especially if you do not have a purpose-designed tourniquet at hand.
Tourniquets also don’t prevent exsanguination from high limb or torso wounds, so in my small medtac kits I carry a RATS tourniquet (which isn’t as easy to use as a CAT but can be self-applied and used on any size limb), hemostatic gauze, an emergency trauma bandage, and vented chest seals as well as gloves and mini-shears, which will probably be enough to deal with any penetrating trauma that I would be skilled enough to successfully treat prior to transportation to an emergency room or trauma center. Anything that required an OPA or invasive treatment is outside the scope of my training, and frankly I hope to never have to use one of those kits because what I’ve seen of modern high velocity gunshot wounds leaves me little confidence in being able to treat such an injury.
