First Aid is Very Important: I wish I know More

4 days ago

Hello Everyone

Life is a Full of many surprises, anything can happen anywhere at anytime. One minute you are gracefully riding your bike, and another minute you a drunk driver just got you from behind and you find yourself in a pool of your own blood. One minute you see someone, another minute they collapsed, it's really part of the many experiences of life, unfortunate incidents happens everywhere, we can only be more vigilant and pray to God to keep us safe and keep us from all evils.

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First Aid, just as it name implies is the immediate care you give to an ill or injured person before any professional medical help arrives, wether an ambulance or doctors and nurse. In many cases accidents and incidents happen in the least expected places and time, so it can be a very dangerous thing to be waiting for any help to come, in a country like Nigeria where a lot of rural areas don't even have emergency service operating there or maybe a functional hospital near you. This is why you need to have some knowledge one First Aid.

For me As someone who have the opportunity to learning first aid in school (I mean very little because, that was a very long time ago), I am often reminded of the importance of being prepared for emergencies, many a time I see a lot of awful accidents on the roads, sometimes I try to help but sometimes I just can't do anything considering the fatality of such Accidents.
Honestly You never can tell or know when an accident might happen, and I think having some basic knowledge of first aid can make all the difference.

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I remembered the last time I learnt about first aid was when I was in secondary school, I still remember the thrill of learning about different types of wounds, how to stop bleeding, and what to do in case of a cardiac arrest, although this was a very long time ago. It's really disheartening that even in the University, Learning about first aid wasn't among the General courses then.

I would have been so very ignorant of some basic first aid applications, if not because of learning in my secondary school time and I also taught students in my class, when I was still teaching then in Lagos.
One valuable things I have learned is the importance of staying calm in emergency situations.
It's a golden rule in First Aid, you should never panic, like my Naija people will say In broken English: No loose Composure, No panic lol
Whenever anyone is injured or ill, it's easy to panic and loose focus, but when you are calm and you really know what you are doing will help you to provide the best possible care.

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Let me tell you Some basic First Aid Skills I've Learned

The First skill I remembered is the CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation): I have learned how to perform CPR on adults, children, and infants, which can help keep blood flowing to the brain and other vital organs until medical help arrives.
It is not a very easy one to do, but the process is that you press down the chest of the person continuously up to 2 inches and then give a breath, through the mouth while you hold the nose, give the breath until you see the chest rise and then leave the nose and continue the compression, you can give in 30 cycle count repeatedly.
This a skill that I hope I will never have to use because it's super frightening, but it's good to know you can actually do it to save a life.

The Second skill is: the Wound Care: It is very vital to know how to clean and dress wounds, apply tourniquets, and use hemostatic agents to control bleeding.
There are ways of stopping blood flows from wounds, some wound may be very delicate, like the ones that a major Artillery is cut or bigger blood vessels. You need to raise that part of the body up before stopping the blood flow.
It is so amazing how much of a difference proper wound care can make in the healing process of the injured person.

The third skill is a skill I know very little about, this is the Burn Care:
The way you access burns wounds and how to dress the wound can help in speedy recovery and protect the wound from infection.
You need to also know that there are many degrees of burns: the Third degree burn, the second degree burns and finally the most dangerous one which is the First Degree burn.
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Do I have any personal Experience with applying it on anyone?

Only one I can remember, it was a bike accident, the legs of the bike rider and the passenger got really bruised, I apply some first aid on them and they were rushed to the nearby clinic.

Having first aid knowledge can be a lifesaver.
Although I never really experienced a life-threatening one, but I can readily apply the knowledge I have to save a life.