First Aid and Basic Life Support
First aid and basic life support tests whether you can run a primary survey, start CPR correctly, and manage bleeding, choking, and burns until the ambulance arrives.
Primary survey: DRABC
Danger (to you, the casualty, and bystanders), Response (shout and shake the shoulders gently), Airway (head tilt, chin lift), Breathing (look, listen, feel for up to 10 seconds), Circulation (check for severe bleeding). Move a casualty only if there is immediate danger.
CPR and the AED
Adult CPR is 30 compressions to 2 rescue breaths, hands on the centre of the chest, 5–6 cm deep, at 100–120 per minute, allowing full recoil. If untrained or unwilling, do compression-only CPR. Use an AED as soon as it arrives; it gives spoken instructions. Call Suwa Seriya 1990 for the ambulance.
Common emergencies
- Severe bleeding: direct pressure with a clean cloth; do not remove the cloth, add layers on top.
- Choking adult: 5 back blows, then 5 abdominal thrusts; repeat.
- Burns: cool with running water for 20 minutes, cover loosely; no ice, no toothpaste.
- Unconscious but breathing: recovery position and monitor.
- Fractures: immobilise in the position found; do not straighten.
Worked example
A visitor collapses. Reasoning: check danger, shout for a response, no response - open the airway, check breathing for 10 seconds, not breathing normally - call 1990, start CPR 30:2, send someone for the AED, keep going until help arrives or the casualty recovers.
Traps that cost marks
- Giving water to an unconscious casualty.
- Pulling out an embedded object.
- Stopping CPR without a handover.
- Putting ice on a burn.