Essay On First Aid

When most people hear “First Aid” they think of the little white box with the red logo on it containing Band-Aids, gauze, tape, bug bite sticks, and antibiotic cream. However Webster’s Dictionary defines first aid as “the emergency care or treatment given to an ill or injured person before regular medical aid can be obtained”. That being said “First Aid” is not to be confused with “First Responder” whom is a trained paramedic who is able to administer CPR, medication, perform intubation, IV fluids, and a multitude of other medical tasks that any bystander or even a CPR certified civilian is unable to perform.

First Aid is a broad spectrum of things. It can range from the simplest of tasks like helping a kid that fell down and may have broken a bone sit still until EMS can get there to properly splint the arm and transport them to an emergency room, or putting an ice pack on a sprained ankle until proper medical care can be administered, to performing CPR on a patient in cardiac arrest, or rescue breathing to a person whom is not breathing but has a pulse.

First Aid encompasses so much more than just bandages and antibiotic cream. One of the biggest components to first aid is CPR. One of the major advancements in first aid today is “The Lucas” an automated compression machine for CPR to aid medics in providing the best care possible without tiring out doing compressions. It allows the first responders to have more hands to check pulses, give epinephrine if needed, and intubate if unable to have a clear open airway to provide breaths.

According to the American Heart Association (American Heart Association, n.d.) approximately 850 Americans die every day from sudden cardiac arrest. Of these, eighty percent of them occur in the ...

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...nd even years for someone else.

Works Cited

Butler/ American Heart Association, Janet. "CPR for Adults." BLS for Healthcare

Providers. N.p.: American Heart Association, 2006. 3-14. Print.

Guzy, Peter M., MD, Morton Lee Pearce, MD, and Sheldon Greenfield, MD. "The

Survival Benefit of Bystander Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation In a Paramedic

Served Metropolitan Area." American Journal of Public Health 73.7 (1983):

766-769. Academic Search Premier.

Vaillancourt, Christian, George A. Wells, and Ian G. Stiell. "Understanding and

Improving low bystander CPR rates: a systematic review of the literature."

CJEM: The Journal of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians

10.1 (2008): 51-65. Academic Search Premier.

American Heart Association

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/CPRAndECC/WhatisCPR/What-is-CPR_UCM_001120_SubHomePage.jsp