First Aid
Top Misconceptions
- You should put butter or cream on a burn. The only thing you should put on a burn is cold water - keep the butter for cooking.
- If you can't move a limb, it must be broken. If you can move a limb, it can’t be broken. The only accurate way to diagnose a broken limb is to x-ray it.
- The best way to treat bleeding is to put the wound under a tap. If you put a bleeding wound under a tap you wash away the body's clotting agents and make it bleed more.
- Nose bleeds are best treated by putting the head back. If you put the head back during a nosebleed, all the blood goes down the back of the airway.
- A tourniquet is the best way to treat serious bleeding. It's harmful to stop the blood flow to a limb for more than 10-15 minutes.
- If someone has swallowed a poison you should make them sick. If you make someone sick by putting your fingers in their mouth, the vomit may block their airway.
- If you perform CPR on someone who has a pulse you can damage their heart. The evidence is that it isn’t dangerous to do chest compressions on a casualty with a pulse.
- You need lots of training to do first aid. You don't - what you mostly need is common sense. You can learn enough first aid in ten minutes to save someone's life.
- You need lots of expensive equipment to do first aid. You don't need any equipment to do first aid; there are lots of ways to improvise anything you need.
If you want to know what to do - Book a course with ABC Emergency Aid Training today!
