BLEEDING
Depending on where the
wound is, blood could be gushing out at speed, so you need to act quickly to
stop excessive blood loss and unconsciousness.
'It is possible for a
person to bleed out their entire blood volume in around just a minute from a
serious wound,'
(A heart beats an average of 72 beats per minute, each beat pumps roughly 70mls of blood, 72 x 70 = 5040 - the average adult has 5 litres of blood)
So grip the wound as
firmly as you can with a clean towel or any large cloth you find nearby.
Apply pressure directly
to the wound and raise it to at least the level of the heart to reduce the
blood flow to the affected area.
If your leg is bleeding,
lie down and lift up your leg to get it above the heart. This distorts the
blood flow, making it harder for blood to flow uphill against gravity.
This reduces how much of
it reaches the wound, which in turn reduces the amount of bleeding.
As a general rule,
whether you are hurt or tending someone else who is, do not try applying a
tourniquet to stop bleeding.
The majority of severe
bleeds can be dealt effectively with direct pressure to stop or slow down the
flow of blood until emergency help arrives.
Not only are torniquets
difficult to apply to yourself, they can cause irreparable damage to a limb if
not applied by a medic with specialist training.
'The trouble is that to
be effective torniquets stop the blood flow completely. This also starves the
limb of oxygen and if the pressure is not released in time, irreparable tissue
damage will occur,' says Clive James, a training officer with St John
Ambulance.
Never try to remove
anything that is embedded in a wound. Leave it where it is because it could be
forming a plug, so removing it could make the bleeding worse. Wait until you
get to A&E, where it will be removed in a sterile environment and the wound
can be treated properly.
Interested in learning First Aid?
Why not book on to one of our courses www.safatraining.co.uk
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