First Aid and Emergency Care
First aid is judged on order of action: make the scene safe, assess, call for help, then treat. Marks are lost by treating before assessing or by using harmful home remedies.
The order of action
- DRABC: Danger (traffic, electricity, fire), Response (shout and shake), Airway (open and clear), Breathing (look, listen, feel), Circulation (pulse and bleeding).
- Call 108 early; one rescuer stays with the casualty.
- Do not move a suspected spinal injury unless there is immediate danger.
Condition-specific rules
- Severe bleeding: direct pressure with a clean cloth, elevate the limb, add layers over soaked cloth instead of removing it.
- Burns: cool with clean running water for 20 minutes; no ice, toothpaste, oil or ghee; remove rings before swelling; cover loosely.
- Choking adult: five back blows then abdominal thrusts. Infant under one year: back blows and chest thrusts only.
- Unresponsive and not breathing: CPR with 30 compressions to 2 breaths, rate 100 to 120 per minute, depth 5 to 6 cm in an adult; use an AED as soon as it arrives.
- Snake bite: immobilise the limb, remove rings, no cutting, sucking or tourniquet; transport to a hospital with anti-snake venom.
- Poisoning: do not induce vomiting; carry the container or a sample to hospital.
Worked example
A man collapses in a shop, unresponsive and not breathing normally. Reasoning: check danger first, shout for help and send someone to call 108, check breathing for no more than 10 seconds, then start compressions: 30 at 100 to 120 per minute, 5 to 6 cm deep, allowing full chest recoil, with two rescue breaths if trained. Do not spend minutes hunting for a pulse.
Traps that cost marks
- Giving oral fluids to an unconscious person.
- Putting ice or toothpaste on a burn.
- Using a tight tourniquet as first-line bleeding control.
- Performing abdominal thrusts on an infant.