HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 May 1942, Page 2

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

A FIRST-AID OUTFIT

It can happen here, and it is just as well to be prenared with a firstaid outfit ready on call. There may be cuts, wounds and burns to dress at a moment’s notice. There should be in each house enough facilities to take care of simple injuries, and to rive relief in more serious cases until the first aid post or emergency dressing station is reached. A first-aid outfit does not have to be expensive. The Department recommends the following as meeting emergency requirements in the average small home: — Bandages: One triangular, several one-inch and two-inch bandages. Lint: Four-ounce packet of plain sterilised lint. Adhesive Plaster: One yard. Tincture of lodine or Friar’s Balsam: Four ounces of either. Castor Oil: One ounce. For use as soothing first aid for eye injuries. Small bottle of Disinfectant. For Burns: One tube of tannic acid or gentian violet jelly (or vaseline or eucalyptus, or cod liver oil). Such things as aspirin, safety pins, and scissors can be supplied from household stock. A tourniquet for serious bleeding can be improvised from a bandage, a tie or a belt, twisting a stick through the knot and tightening gently. Be careful to release the pressure at sufficient intervals. First aid treatment of wounds consists of stopping bleeding and preventing germs from getting into the wounds. Plaster will keep the dressing 111 Treat’burns immediately. A tannic acid jelly such as Tannafax is gooci except for serious burns on face or hands, but gentian violet jelly can be used anywhere on the body. Leave fractures alone until the first-aid squad arrives. Shock is seriouc The victim’s skin becomes pale and covered with cold clammy sweat; the lips and nails may. be blue; and the pulse rapid and hard to find. Keen the sufferer warm until medical aid arrives, and use a teaspoonful of sal volatile in water, or hot water, tea or coffee as a stimulant.