PREPARING TO ACT

1. LESSON 1 PREPARING TO ACT 1-1

2. First Aid Training is Important • Can happen to anyone, any time • Injury and sudden illness require immediate attention • Life or well being often depends on first aid 1-2

3. What is First Aid? • Immediate help given to victim of injury or sudden illness • Help given before victim sees health care provider • Help typically given by friend, family member, co-worker or bystander • Help given using minimal or no medical equipment 1-3

4. Primary Goals of First Aid • Keep victim alive • Prevent victim’s condition from getting worse • Help promote early recovery • Ensure victim receives appropriate medical care 1-4

5. The Need for First Aid • Heart disease is the most common cause of death, resulting in about 616,000 deaths a year • Over 1,250,000 heart attacks occur, resulting in over 132,000 deaths • About 795,000 people a year have a stroke, resulting in about 136,000 deaths • About 124,200 die from unintentional injuries • About 39 million visits are made to emergency departments because of injuries 1-5

6. Deciding to Help Common Concerns-barriers to action • Worried about not doing right thing • Think someone else will provide better care • Not sure it is an emergency • Upset by sight of blood or injury • Worried about catching a disease 1-6

7. Stay Prepared toHelp • Know appropriate first aid • Be confident • Have a first aid kit • Know 9-1-1 and other emergency numbers • Teach children to call 9-1-1 not 9-eleven • Make others aware of medical conditions 1-7

8. Emergency Medical ServiceSystem • Dispatcher • Receives call, gathers information, sends help • Emergency medical responders • First to arrive and take over care • EMTs/paramedics • Give more advanced care and transport victim 1-8

9. When to Call 9-1-1 • Victim may have life-threatening condition • Victim is unresponsive • Victim’s condition may become life-threatening • Moving victim could make condition worse • Do not transport the victim yourself 1-9

10. Unresponsive or AMS Not breathing/difficulty breathing Chest pain/discomfort Severe bleeding Head or spine injury Poisoning/drug overdose Vomiting blood Seizures Severe burn Drowning Threatened suicide Imminent childbirth Call 9-1-1 1-10

11. Other Reasons to Call 9-1-1 • Fire, explosion • Vehicle crash • Downed electrical wire • Chemical spill, gas leak, unknown substances present • Swiftly moving or rapidly rising water 1-11

12. WhenYou Call 9-1-1 Have this information ready: • Your name and phone number you are using • The location and number of victims • What happened/special circumstances • Victim’s condition • Victim’s sex and approximate age • What is being done for victim(s) 1-12

13. Can You Be Sued? Not if you: • Act only as you are trained to act. • Get a victim’s consent before giving first aid. • Do not move a victim unnecessarily. • Call for professional help. • Keep giving care until help arrives. 1-13

14. Good Samaritan Laws Protect you: • When acting in an emergency, voluntarily and without compensation • When acting as a reasonable, prudent person with the same training would act • When performing first aid only as trained • If you do not abandon the victim after starting to give care • ..\..\Kenny\FA Stuff\Washington Laws 1975.doc 1-14

15. Must You Give First Aid? • Usually not as a bystander • May feel an ethical or moral obligation • Legal obligations: • If you start first aid, you must continue • If first aid is included in your job • If you are responsible for a child 1-15

16. Consent • Responsive victim must give consent • Tell person your training and what you will do to help 1-16

17. Implied Consent • Unresponsive victim assumed to give consent • Consent assumed for child needing first aid if parent/guardian not present 1-17

18. Refusal of Care • Competent adult has right to refuse care • May not be competent because of: • Intoxication • Influence of drug • Altered mental status from injury or diabetic emergency 1-18

19. Refusal of Care continued • If victim refuses: • Call 9-1-1 • Keep talking but do not argue • Ensure there is a witness to the refusal 1-19

20. Scope of Care • Perform only the techniques in which you are trained • Trying anything else may make you legally liable 1-20

21. Negligence • May be negligent only if three conditions exist: • You have a duty to act • You breach that duty • Your actions (or inactions) cause injury or damage 1-21

22. Examples of Negligence Examples: • Moving a victim unnecessarily • Doing something you have not been trained to do • Failing to give first aid as you have been trained 1-22

23. Abandonment • Once you start, don’t stop! • Another person with the same or higher level of training may take over • Stay with victim until help arrives • If you leave and injury/illness becomes worse this is abandonment 1-23

24. Stopping Care Justified instances of stopping care: • Exhausted and unable to continue • Being in imminent danger 1-24

25. Confidentiality • Never give out private information about victim • Unless it is to health care professionals who are caring for victim 1-25

26. Being Prepared • Teach children how to call for help as soon as can use phone • Keep emergency phone #’s and contacts by your phone or in first aid kit • Have an up-to-date first aid kid at your home, workplace, and automobile (page 7) • Learn and practice first aid and CPR skills

27. Scenario A motorcycle with two riders weaves dangerously between parked cars in a crowded shopping center parking lot. As the cyclists dart between cars, they confront a moving car. Both the car and cycle veer to avoid a head-on collision. The cycle strikes the side of the oncoming car, throwing the riders to the ground. The car stops abruptly, throwing the driver into the windshield. Nearby, Jamie and Paul (two college students) hear the sound of crunching metal and blaring horns and decide to join the small group of bystanders. As they approach the scene, they are confronted with the sight of broken glass, strewn metal and a cracked windshield. A gas cap lies nearby, and they notice what appears to be gasoline, which has spilled from the motorcycle onto the roadway. One victim screams in pain as she sits holding her injured arm. The other victim lies motionless.

28. Two people wearing safety belts are inside the stopped car. The driver appears to be shaken. Several onlookers turn away, apparently unable to cope with what they see. Other bystanders continue to gather. As Jamie and Paul look around, no one seems to be helping. They hesitate, wondering whether they should step forward to help. What would you do?