First Aid

First Aid is the temporary help provided to a sick of injured person in a state of emergency before one can get professional medical care. First aid is generally provided after an accident, sudden injury, worsening of medical condition or sudden trauma. (These could be household burns while cooking, injury caused while playing, being bitten by animals or road accidents). The basic objective behind first aid is to provide timely assistance comprising of basic medical techniques which is often life saving.

Any layperson can be trained to administer first aid which can be carried out using minimal equipments. First aid tips can guide a layman to make better decisions on what to do, what not to do and how to provide immediate care during medical emergencies.

Getting Ready to Help

All you really need is common sense and readily available materials such as clean water, rolled newspaper, strings, safety pines, clean cloth antiseptic lotion etc.

You might also need a helpful bystander, to call for help, and to help carry the patient, if necessary. If the injury occurs in a public place, crowd management is most important. Organising people and resources is also important. You will have to keep bystanders away from the injured, so that helpers can get on with rescue operations.

It is useful to know ambulance and police call numbers and call for them at the earliest.