First Aid: The Basics

Scene Safety and Assessment

The instinct to rush to a casualty is strong — and sometimes fatal. A rescuer who becomes a second victim helps no one and burdens the responders.

Approach in order - Danger: scan for traffic, fire, electricity, water, violence. Make the scene safe or move the casualty only if you must. - Response: speak and gently tap the shoulders. Do they react? - Airway: tilt the head back gently to open the airway. - Breathing: look, listen and feel for normal breathing for up to ten seconds. - Circulation: check for and control serious bleeding.

Call for professional help as early as possible — ideally have someone else call while you assess. This simple, ordered routine (often remembered as DR-ABC) stops you from being overwhelmed: instead of facing a chaotic emergency all at once, you face one clear question at a time. That structure is what lets ordinary people act effectively under extraordinary stress.

The Recovery Position

An unconscious person has lost the reflexes that normally protect them. Left on their back, the tongue can fall and block the throat, or vomit can be inhaled — either can kill silently within minutes.

Why the side position works Rolling a breathing but unresponsive person onto their side, with the head tilted slightly back and the chin up, does two things: it keeps the airway open, and it lets fluids drain out of the mouth rather than into the lungs.

• Use it for anyone unconscious who is breathing normally.
• Keep checking that breathing continues.
• If breathing stops or is abnormal, that is a different emergency — CPR (next lesson).

The recovery position is one of the simplest and most powerful things an untrained bystander can do. It requires no equipment and no strength, only the knowledge that an unprotected airway is a quiet, immediate danger — and the presence of mind to turn a person onto their side.

CPR: An Overview

When the heart stops, the brain begins to die within minutes. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) buys time: firm, rhythmic chest compressions push blood — and oxygen — to the brain until a defibrillator or medics can restart the heart.

The essentials - Call for emergency help and, if available, a defibrillator (AED) immediately. - Push hard and fast in the centre of the chest, allowing the chest to rise fully between compressions. - Keep going with as few interruptions as possible until help takes over.

Bystander CPR can double or triple a person's chance of survival.

The precise depth, rate and the choice to add rescue breaths are best learned by practising on a manikin in a certified class — which is why this is an *overview*, not a how-to. But the single most important message needs no classroom: a stopped heart is not always the end. Fast, determined compressions by whoever is there can hold the line until the professionals arrive.

Choking

A blocked airway is one of the few emergencies where seconds truly count, because the person cannot breathe at all.

Reading the situation - Mild (effective cough): if the person can still cough, speak or breathe, the body is doing the work — encourage them to keep coughing and do not interfere. - Severe (silent, cannot breathe): if they cannot cough or make sound, the airway is fully blocked and they need immediate help.

In a severe case, trained responders alternate firm blows between the shoulder blades with abdominal thrusts to force the object out, and begin CPR if the person loses consciousness. The exact techniques differ for babies and should be learned by practising.

The reason this is worth knowing is simple arithmetic: an ambulance may be ten minutes away, but a fully blocked airway allows only a few. In those minutes, the only help that exists is the person standing next to the casualty.