WHAT TO DO IN AN EMERGENCY
Emergencies can pretty much be seen as a part of normal life. Chances are that every person will experience one or more of such a situation in their lifetime. Nature itself has prepared us for it with our innate fight-flight response that kicks in automatically when we face fear—either for our own lives or that of our loved ones. Whilst the fight-flight response is designed to help improve human performance in the moment of need which, in a health emergency would mean ensuring the survival of the suffering person whilst minimising resultant disability, for the person who doesn’t know what to do, it could even make matters worse. Indeed, one other way to describe the same response is fight-flight-freeze.
So, what should you do if you find yourself or a loved one in a health emergency? Well, specific steps differ slightly with each situation but here are a few general steps that can help you do your best:
Stay calm: Everyone gets scared when faced with a life-threatening situation, even paramedics—at least at first. The difference is that they have been trained to stay calm because only then is one able to carefully make use of available resources to try and salvage the situation. Even if you’re trained to give bystander first aid, if you’re too jittery, you’re likely to make a mistake or even freeze and not remember what to do. Deep breaths tend to help people get as calm as possible in such situations. Practise taking deep breaths whenever you feel anxious so that it already becomes a part of you even before you get to face any health emergency.
Call for help: First aid or rescue efforts are almost always better when done as a group. Whether you’re giving rescue breaths to a victim of drowning or chest compressions to a heart attack victim, chances of success are usually better when there are more hands available. So, the first thing you want to do is to call out for help. You should scream out loud in case there are other people nearby and you should dial emergency numbers too if immediately possible. 112 is the Nigerian National Emergency Number.
Ensure your safety: Before jumping right in, take a moment to assess the situation as regards your own safety. For instance, to help a victim of electrical injury, make sure they’re no longer connected to the electrical power source or that it has been switched off from the mains. Another situation is a drowning victim, if you cannot swim well enough to be able to support someone else whilst also keeping yourself afloat, it might be better to look for someone who can instead.
First Aid: The next thing you want to do is see if you can offer any first aid. If you have been trained to offer first aid for the specific situation you’re faced with, this is the time to put it to use while you wait for first responders to arrive. If you’re not trained, you could use Google and see if there’s something there for untrained bystanders. The internet age has made knowledge easily accessible on the go. Stick to content from trusted websites like HEI, Google, WHO (World Health Organization) etc. Avoid social media content as most of those are unproven and may even do more harm than good. Ultimately, if you’re uncertain, then simply wait.
Do not leave the affected person alone: Even if you find yourself unable to help, stay with the person. By simply observing the course of events from when you found the suffering person, you just might be able to offer information that will help first responders in their attempts to save the person’s life when they arrive.
So, there you go, keep these steps in mind and you’ll most likely be able to do your best when faced with a health emergency. If you wish to get trained for bystander first aid, you can reach out to us at (Health Emergency Initiative) HEI at 07063985777 and info@hei.org.ng. You can also donate to our schemes towards ensuring that everyone faced with a health emergency gets all the support they need to help them get through it successfully.