First Aid and Medical Response
Order of operations
Scene safety and body-substance precautions come first; you cannot render aid from inside a hazard. Then address catastrophic bleeding and airway: the modern sequence prioritizes severe hemorrhage control and compressions over the traditional airway-first approach in cardiac arrest.
CPR and AED
Adult compressions run 30:2 at 100–120 per minute with a depth of about two inches; single-rescuer child and infant CPR is also 30:2, switching to 15:2 with two rescuers. Check for a pulse for no more than ten seconds. Apply an AED as soon as it arrives and follow its prompts. For choking, use abdominal thrusts on a conscious adult or child; back slaps and chest thrusts for an infant.
Bleeding, shock, and medical emergencies
Direct pressure first, then wound packing for deep bleeding, then a tourniquet two to three inches above the wound, not over a joint, with the time written down and no periodic loosening. Keep shock patients warm and lying down; give nothing by mouth to an unresponsive or semi-responsive person. Recognize stroke with FAST, protect a seizing person from injury without putting anything in the mouth, give sugar to a conscious diabetic, and administer naloxone for suspected opioid overdose. Do not remove an impaled object.
Restraint and aftercare
After any struggle, place the subject in a recovery position, monitor breathing continuously, and summon EMS. Positional asphyxia and agitated delirium are medical emergencies.
Legal and practical notes
North Carolina provides Good Samaritan protections for emergency care and authorizes lay administration of naloxone. Document what you did, when, and what changed.
Traps
Withholding CPR to search for a pulse, giving water to an unconscious person, loosening a tourniquet, or removing an impaled object.