ON CALL-A FIRSTAID OUTFIT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 145, 2 April 1942, Page 18

ON CALL-A FIRSTAID OUTFIT

(Written for "The Listener" by DR.

H. B.

TUR

BOTT

Director of the Division of School Hygiene,

Health Department )

ferably in a cupboard and safe from children, there should be on call, ready for an emergency, a first-aid outfit. Now, it sounds finea first-aid outfit-and you can spend a deal of money by accepting ready-made collections, often prettily offered in nicelooking tins or boxes possibly adorned with red crosses. But why not make up your own? You can do it very cheaply. Now supposing New Zealand is raided -some unfortunate city or town will be bombed from the air or shelled from the sea. Somebody must be hurt, and it is very unlikely all homes will escape. There will be cuts and wounds, burns, perhaps) broken limbs and damaged eyes. We can’t get ready for everything in the home, and in any case, there are first aid posts and emergency dressing stations to do the really serious work. But we need enough in the house to deal with simple injuries, or to cope with the more serious ones till the posts staffed by doctors and nurses are reached. To Stop Serious Bleeding There is no need to buy a tourniquet for the home. Should really serious fia S eatin a in your home, pre-

bleeding of limbs be encountered, it can mostly be stopped by the pressure of a folded pad and tight bandage, and if this shouldn’t suffice on trial, you can always improvise a tourniquet with a belt, tie, or bandage, twisting with a stick through the knot and tightening gently till the bleeding stops. Or you can have a ready-made one for your outfit, from 2 ft. of inner bicycle tube, or a 2-foot strip of a car inner tube, preferably 112-inch wide. Always try pressure first and you will rarely need tourniquets. You will need to be able to treat wounds. First aid treatment of wounds consists of stopping bleeding and preventing germs from getting into the wound. Germs may bé present on the skin, fingers, clothing, and unclean dressings. Nothing should touch the wound except clean sterilised cloth, gauze or lint-this dressing should be kept in place by a bandage or adhesive plaster. The cleaning of a wound is the doctor’s job. Small injuries, cuts, scratches that needn’t be seen by the doctor, should be washed with disinfectant solution or painted with iodine, and covered with a _ sterile dressing and plaster or bandage. An Improvised Splint Fractures, apart from stopping bleeding of compound ones, you will leave alone till the first-aid squad arrives. If you should have to move the sufferer you can easily improvise a splint to keep the broken parts of the bone immovable. Any rigid material that is long enough to teach beyond the joints above and below the break will serve as a splint. A foreign body in the eye can be got out, if possible, with the corner of a. clean handkerchief, and if y it can’t, drop. a little castor oil into the eye to soothe till medical help can be obtained, Treatment of Burns : Burns must be treated . immediately, For burns not needing hospital treatment, Tannafax or some such tannic acid preparation is good except for serious burns of face and hands. Gentian violet jelly with merthiolate is better, as it can be used anywhere on the body. You may not be able to buy these. Vaseline and eucalyptus makes a reasonable dressing, so does pure codliver oil, or codliver oil and vaseline. For serious burns requiring hospital treatment, the only dressing needed is a wet saline one; apply lint strips soaked in a solution of salt, 1 teaspoonful to 1 pint of water. Fainting and shock may occur, For the faint, lay the person flat on his back, and leave him there a while before getting him up again. Shock is serious, The skin is pale and covered with a cold, clammy sweat; the lips and nails may be blue. The pulse is rapid and hard to find; breathing is feeble. Lay the person down and keep him warm. Get (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) blankets, coats, hot water bottles, etc., if possible. A teaspoonful of sal volatile in a little water or hot tea, coffee, or hot water may be used to stimulate. Send for medical help. What You Need Well, then, this is what you need to have on call:...For wounds: Bandages-One triangular and several one-inch and two-inch bandages. Lint-Plain sterilised, 4 oz. packet. Adhesive plaster-1 yard or less. Tincture of iodine or Friar’s Bal-sam-4 oz. of either. DisinfectantLysol or Dettol, a small bottle. For eye injuries: Castor oil, 1 ounce. For burns: Salt, 1 ounce. Tannic acid or Gentian violet jelly, one tube; or vaseline and eucalyptus; or codliver oil. From household stocks: Aspirin, safety pins, scissors. Not a very big list; one that won't make more than a tiny hole in the purse, and yet will be very useful when the call comes. (Next week: "For and Against Cooking," by Dr. Muriel Bell).