First Aid and Casualty Care
First aid and casualty care tests the immediate actions that save life before evacuation. The exam favours DRABC, CPR, bleeding control and heat illness.
Primary survey
Danger, Response, Airway, Breathing, Circulation. Check for danger to yourself and the casualty. Shout and shake for response. Open the airway, look, listen and feel for breathing. If not breathing, call for help and start CPR.
CPR
Compress the centre of the chest 30 times, then give 2 rescue breaths if trained; compressions at 100-120 per minute, 5-6 cm deep. Continue until help arrives or the casualty breathes.
Bleeding and injury
Apply direct pressure to bleeding, elevate if possible, and use a tourniquet only for life-threatening limb bleeding when direct pressure fails. Immobilise fractures. Cool burns with clean water; do not remove impaled objects. For heat stroke, move to shade, cool actively and evacuate.
Worked example
A soldier collapses in heat and is not breathing. The reasoning: danger first, check response, airway and breathing, then CPR and evacuation. Do not delay CPR to search for water.
Traps
Giving water to an unconscious casualty, removing an impaled object, moving a suspected spinal casualty unnecessarily, and failing to call for help.