How to Save a Life

Step one you say we need to talk...no The Fray, that's not step one. Step one is to assess the area around the casualty for danger, but I guess the song might not have had the same emotional depth to it with those lyrics.

So how do you save a life? Well, obviously that depends on the state of the casualty. If they are unconscious and not breathing, then the answer is CPR. Most of us have been taught this at one time or another either at school or for work, but without a refresh it’s easy to forget the steps of CPR. And if you were to find yourself unexpectedly in a situation with an unconscious casualty, nobody wants to be standing in a helpless panic.

So you walk into a room to find somebody lying on the floor unconscious. What do you do?

Step 1: you say we need to talk...joking!

Real step 1: Danger - check for danger to yourself and the casualty. Clear the area around the casualty, and do not move the casualty unless they are in immediate danger where they are. 

Step 2: Response - give the casualty a command, like "can you hear me? open your eyes!" gently shake their shoulders to see if they respond.

Step 3: Airway - open the airway by putting one hand on the forehead and two fingers from the other hand under the chin to tilt the head back.

Step 4: Breathing - now the airway is open, check for breathing. Do this by putting your ear to the casualty's mouth and listening for breath, feeling for breath on your cheek and looking to see if the chest rises. Do this for no longer than 10 seconds.

*Note here that steps 1-4 make up the DRAB sequence - Danger, Response, Airway Breathing*

Step 5: The casualty isn't breathing? Go for help if alone or ask someone else to. This step is very important before you carry on with anything else.

Step 6: Chest compressions. This involves placing the heel of your hand on the centre of the chest, and placing your other hand on top to interlock your fingers. The fingers should stay off the rib cage. Press directly down, with elbows straight to push the chest down 4-5cm. Release the pressure fully but keep the hands on the chest. This should be repeated 30 times at a rate of 100/minute. A handy trick is to sing the Bee Gees "Staying alive" to get the right pace.

Step 7: Rescue breaths. Give two rescue breaths by ensuring the airway is open, then supporting the chin with finger tips and pinching the soft part of the nose. Take a breath in and make a mouth to mouth seal with the casualty, and steadily breath out for 1 second whilst looking to see if the chest rises. Remove your mouth and watch the chest fall before starting the next rescue breath.

Step 8: Continue to do 30 chest compressions to two rescue breaths until professional help arrives or the casualty breaths normally.

So that's how to save a life. But there are a few extras you should know:

After the DRAB sequence (steps 1-4), you may find the casualty is breathing. Now if the casualty is making short, infrequent gasps for breath (known as agonal breathing) you should continue with CPR in the same way as if the casualty was not breathing. However, if the casualty is breathing normally, then you should put them into the recovery position and call for help. The recovery position is a position which keeps the airway open.

Another potential problem is a blocked airway - now, if visible you can attempt to take it out of the mouth, however strictly speaking you should not interfere as this could push the object further down. In this instance you should perform chest compressions alone without rescue breaths. This is hands only CPR, as demonstrate by Vinnie Jones in this advert here. What a legend of a man.

Another problem can arise at step 5 - the chest doesn't rise when you give a rescue breath. In this case, check the head position, check the mouth to mouth seal is tight and look for any obstructions in the mouth. Limit yourself to two attempts at rescue breaths before performing only chest compressions.

And that there folks is how to potentially save a life.

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References:

St John’s Ambulance Teaching Materials

Don’t stand so close to me...

Did you know that a sneeze shoots out from the nose at up to 100 miles per hour? With each sneeze, 40,000 droplets of germs travel up to six feet through the air.  Plus, the droplets of sneeze seen to the eye only make up about 4% of the total volume expelled…pretty grim no?

The NHS campaign poster

With germs spreading through sneezes, coughs and surfaces like door handles that we all touch regularly, why aren’t we ill all the time? Well, our immune systems can build up resistance after being exposed to a bacteria/virus, so that upon a second exposure, antibodies are produced to fight the germ quickly, stopping us getting the same illness again. However, in the case of the common cold, as there are more than 200 types of virus which can cause a cold we would need to be exposed to all of them to become ‘immune’, which is why adults get 2-4 colds on average per year.

Nowadays we have all sorts of ways to stop the spread of these germs. Many of us carry around a little alcohol hand gel in our bags to keep our hands germ free. Interestingly, people of the Muslim faith cannot use alcohol hand gel – hence in hospitals there are soap dispensers next to the alcohol gel dispensers. Many of us also carry around a pack of tissues – sneezing into a tissue stops a lot of the horrible droplets spreading to other people, as the NHS tries to inform us all of with its ‘catch it , bin it, kill it’ campaign.

Despite all these nifty new ideas to improve hygiene, we all still sneeze, cough and spread germs around every day. Luckily for us, the human race has good enough immunity due to strategies such as vaccinations, to boost our immunity and stop the outbreak of many diseases which would otherwise be out of control. However, there is still the potential for epidemics – a current concern is that of a measles outbreak.  Between January and April 2011 there were over seven thousand cases of measles in France, extremely higher than the usual numbers. There is concern that this epidemic will spread from France other countries, as measles is a highly infectious and potentially dangerous illness which spreads very easily. There has since been increased pressure on people to be fully immunized, particularly if traveling abroad.

Now that's just taking
it too far...

But it is by no means all doom and gloom. With increasing research into infection control, the knowledge of how diseases spread and the use of vaccines to stop them, we have everything in place to try to prevent and end outbreaks of diseases. Government campaigns such as catch it, bin it, kill it are spreading the knowledge of good hygiene to try to reduce the number of sick days people take with the flu. We all know the importance of hand washing, using tissues, and we are even now told to sneeze into our elbows not our hands to cut down the amount of germs being spread. So not covering your sneezes may not lead to the end of the world, but it can definitely spread your germs around the office and make you less popular with your colleagues...

References

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rmrmm

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Cold-common/Pages/Introduction.aspx 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13561766