First Aid in the Home

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 73, Issue 6, 16 December 1946, Page 586

First Aid in the Home

ARTIFICIAL RESPIRATION

O ECAUSE a life may depend on the prompt and correct use of artificial respiration, it is important that a “first-aider” should know how it is administered. In this article, the fourth of a series, C. Meachen, secretary to; the St. John Ambulance Association, Wellington,: describes the steps that should be taken to treat asphyxiation by artificial respiration.

OF all the forms of ' asphyxiation, electric shock is perhaps the most serious from the first aid point of view, because it causes paralysis of the whole nervous system. Unless artificial respiration is commenced within four or five minutes, the chances of recovery are remote. Do not wait; start artificial respiration immediately and keep it going. If the lungs are prevented from obtaining their supply of air, death will result from suffocation or asphyxiation. But do not think that, because the patient cannot be seen to be breathing, death has occurred. Continued artificial respiration has saved many lives, sometimes when the treatment has been prolonged and the case has seemed hopeless. '

Some of the more common home accidents requiring artificial respiration treatment are: .

: Electric shock, drowning (which may be considered impossible, but has happened, in baths), choking (especially among infants whose food is being changed from liquids to rusks), - and suffocation, which can be caused by smoke from a washhouse, an open fire, fumes from; burning coke, or escaping gas.

Leaving the engine of a motor-car running in a closed' garage can cause a person to be asphyxiated. The gas from the exhaust fumes of the car is known as carbon monoxide and is deadly poisonous. The chief danger of carbon monoxide is that it is vapourless and odourless.. v

ELECTRIC SHOCK AND DROWNING

In a case of electric shock or drowning both of which cause suffocation remove the patient to fresh air immediately, but remember in a case of electric shock that you should never touch the 1 patient until you have insulated yourself. Protect your body from any contact with the patient’s body by wearing rubber gloves, or by standing on rubber or thoroughly dry wood. If it is a .wet day or night, stand on a piece of glass. Either switch off the current, or remove the live .wire with a wooden walking stick or the house broom, but never use an umbrella, because of its metal ribs and fittings. Place the patient flat on his stomach, the head turned to one side and the arms stretched out from the shoulders and bent upward from the

elbows, with the palms down. This position gives the greatest possible expansion for the lungs. The head is turned sideways to keep the nose and mouth clear of the ground. Do not be concerned, about pulling the tongue forward, as it will naturally fall forward toward the front of the mouth. Kneel at one side of the patient, facing the head with your knees together just below his buttocks; sit on your heels. Next, place your hands in the small of the patient’s back, your wrists' close together so that the thumbs are almost touching, and the fingers together and pointing outward toward the ground at each side of the loins. ‘

Keep your arms quite stiff throughout the whole operation. Bend the body from the knees, partially straightening yourself from 1 the hips until the shoulders are right above the hands do not lean —keeping pressure on your hands all the time. This

presses the patient’s stomach to the ground and forces the airand there is always a little air in the lungs out ' through the air passages and mouth. No extra pressure is, required and the weight of your shoulders, passed through your straight arms, is sufficient. Swing the body slowly backward until the original position (sitting on , your heels) is resumed, keeping , your arms'stiff all the - time. This movement takes your weight , off the patient’s abdomen and thus allows air to be drawn into . the lungs.

Continue ■ the forward and backward movement of .the body, always keeping the arms ' straight, so that pressure is on the hands for two 'seconds and the time taken to swing the body backward and forward is three seconds. An easy way of gauging each second approximately is to count “'one hundred' and one, one hundred and two, one hundred and three,” and so on. ' '

Continue 'the movement until a doctor, arrives, unless, of course, the patient shows signs of recovery and breathing • has begun. Should breathing begin, the rate of pressure and relaxation can be regulated to suit the patient’s breathing. Help the circulation of the body by getting ' someone else to rub the limbs gently in the direction of the .heart, and by keeping the patient warm. If possible, apply well-covered hot water bottles.

Take great care to watch the breathing for some time in case it should weaken or appear to cease. If this' happens, resume artificial respiration.

CHOKING

In all cases of choking immediately remove the obstruction in the throat by slapping the patient sharply on the back between the shoulder blades, If this fails, try to. remove the cause of choking by passing the index finger down the back of the throat and it may be possible to draw the obstruction forward. If this fails, try to push it down the gullet past the entrance to the windpipe. Loosen all tight clothing from the neck to the waist. If breathing has stopped, apply artificial respiration as soon as the throat is clear of the obstruction, and promote warmth and circulation in the manner described.