First Aid: Burns, Bleeding, Fractures, and Spinal Injuries

Posted on Dec 12, 2024 in Physical Education

Burn Injury Causes

Any exposure of part of the body to a higher amount of energy than that body can absorb without damage.

The Causes

  • Heat
  • Chemical products
  • Electricity
  • Lightning

First-Degree Burns

Shallow, affecting only the skin. They present superficial redness and itching without blisters. Healing is spontaneous in 3-4 days.

Second-Degree Burns

Somewhat more profound, affecting the epidermis and dermis, blistering. Healing with adequate methods in 5-7 days.

Third-Degree Burns

Many are deep, affecting the entire skin layer. They produce an alteration of all the structures of the skin and nerve endings, resulting in leathery skin and burned tissue that is called necrosis.

Burn Effects

  • More or less intense pain
  • Infection of the damaged tissues that are left with less resistance to germs
  • Dehydration is the most serious cause

Burn Injury: First Aid

  1. If clothes have caught fire, avoid running, as this would alert the fire.
  2. Cover with a blanket or roll on the floor.
  3. In the case of clothing impregnated with hot liquid, strip it off unless it is bonded to the skin.
  4. Never try to take off pieces of clothing attached to the skin.
  5. In all cases of burns, cool the burned areas as soon as possible by spraying with tap water or a shower at a temperature between 10 and 20 degrees Celsius for about 10 minutes.
  6. Protect the burned area with sterile dressings or as clean as possible.
  7. Burns, ceasing to be in contact with air, become less painful and contamination with germs from the environment is also prevented.
  8. Urgent evacuation to a burn center.

Bleeding

Bleeding means the blood flow out of the circulatory system.

External Bleeding

Blood comes out through a skin wound.

Internal Bleeding

Blood is poured inside, for example, into the abdominal cavity.

Treatment of External Bleeding

Blood tends to come out with a certain force, so another opposing force (compression) must be applied. We compress:

  1. The wound itself.
  2. The bleeding artery.
  3. Compress the artery using a tourniquet (exceptional case).

Internal Bleeding Treatment

It is difficult to know whether there is internal bleeding. General symptoms: the wounded person is thirsty, pale, nauseous, very upset, has cold sweat, anguish, and a weak and rapid pulse. Any person who has suffered a major blow to the chest or abdomen or a wound in the chest or abdomen may have it.

The rescuer should:

  1. Lay the victim horizontally (on their back).
  2. Place in the recovery position if unconscious.
  3. Tuck in, in both cases.

Exteriorized Hemorrhage

Blood from the Nose

Place the injured person sitting with their head forward (not lying down or head back). Compress the nostril that bleeds for 10 minutes.

Blood from the Ear

Symptoms of skull fractures or ruptured eardrum, evacuate to a health center.

Blood from the Mouth

Respiratory origin.

Fracture

A complete or incomplete fracture of a bone. Symptoms are as follows:

  1. Pain at the site of the fracture.
  2. Inability to move the fractured limb.
  3. Deformation of the limb.
  4. Formation of a hematoma.

Treatment

Keep the casualty lying down, warm, and calm. If the deformation is not significant, provide temporary immobilization of the bone with a system that prevents it from moving (splint).

Skull Fracture

Place the wounded person in the recovery position if unconscious, warm, and under surveillance.

Spine Fracture

The spine has two roles: on one hand, it serves as a central, rigid, and bony framework of the trunk, and on the other, it protects the spinal cord. When vertebrae fracture, the bone fragments can damage the fragile structure of the spinal cord and nerves, interrupting the movement of orders between the brain and the rest of the body, causing paralysis from the point of injury down.

The rescuer must:

  1. Force the wounded person, if conscious, not to make any movement.
  2. Do not bend backward, sideways, or forward, and do not sit them up or let them sit.
  3. Prevent them from moving or being transported by the armpits or under the knees.
  4. Do not bend or turn their head.

The rescuer must avoid a broken vertebral column damaging a healthy spinal cord. If there is an immediate risk of an accident (falling off a wall), move them in a few seconds, holding their ankles and pulling to drag them away from the danger.

Transportation Accidents

Specific aspects have a number for each case. As a general rule, do not move the casualty. Only if there is a danger of a secondary accident (toxic gases, collapse) will evacuation be carried out. The posting of an emergency on the ground by a single rescuer is made by holding the ankles and holding the head-neck axis to avoid trunk flexion. If spinal injuries are ruled out, one way of carrying out the evacuation by a single rescuer is to drag them on their back.