GENERAL EMERGENCY INFORMATION

Fire Safety Checklist

Plan two escape routes out of each room.
Practice fire drills at least twice a year.
Stay low to the ground when escaping from a fire.
Never open doors that are hot. In a fire, feel the bottom of the door with the palm of your hand. If it is hot, do not open the door. Find another way out.
Install smoke detectors on every level of your home. Clean and test them at least once a month. Change batteries at least once a year.
Keep a whistle in each bedroom to awaken household in case of a fire.
Check electrical outlets. Do not overload outlets.
Purchase and learn how to use a fire extinguisher (5 lb, A-B-C type)
Consider installing home sprinklers.

Emergency First Aid

First of all, do no harm. Get competent medical assistance, if possible. Do not assume responsiblity for a patient if you can get the help of the EMS System, a doctor, nurse, or experienced first-aid worker. If no one better qualified is available, take charge yourself.
Look for stoppage of breathing, and for serious bleeding. These are the two most life-threatening conditions you can do something about. They demand immediate treatment.
Don't move the patient immediately. Unless there is real danger of the patient receiving further injury where he is, he should not be moved until breathing is restored, bleeding is stopped and suspected broken bones are splinted.
Keep calm and re-assure the patient. Keep him/her lying down and comfortably warm, but do not apply heat to his/her body or make him/her sweat.
Never attempt to give liquids to an unconcious person. If he/she is not able to swallow, he/she may choke or drown. Don't give any liquids to an individual who has an abdominal injury.

To Stop Serious Bleeding

Apply firm, even pressure to the wound with a dressing, clean cloth, or sanitary napkin. If you don't have any of these, use your bare hand until you can get something better. Loss of one or two quarts of blood will seriously endanger the patient's life.
Stopping bleeding from the ears by packing dressing into the ear canal could cause more serious injury.
Hold the dressing in place with your hand until you can bandage the wound. In case of an arm or leg wound, make sure the bandage is not so tight as to cut off circulation; and raise the arm or leg above the level of the patient's heart (if the arm or leg appears broken, splint it first).
Treat the patient for shock.
If blood soaks through the dressing, do NOT remove the dressing. Apply more dressing.
Never use a tourniquet unless you cannot stop excessive, life-threatening bleeding by any other method. If you are forced to use a tournequiet to stop the patient from bleeding to death, follow these instructions:

Place the tourniquet as close to the wound as possible, between the wound and the patient's heart.
After the tourniquet has been applied, do NOT permit it to be loosened by anyone except a physician who can control the bleeding and replace the blood that the patient has lost.
Get a physician to treat the patient as soon as possible.

Preventing and treating shock

Being "in shock" means that a person's circulatory system is NOT working properly, and not enough blood or oxygen is getting to the vital centers o fhis brain and spinal cord.
The symptoms of shock are:

The patient's pulse is weak or rapid, or he may have no pulse that you can find.
The patient's skin may be pale, or blue, cold, or moist.
The patient's breathing may be shallow or irregular.
They may have chills.
They may be thirsty.
They may get sick to their stomach and vomit.

A person can be "in shock" whether he/she is conscious or unconcious. All seriously injured persons should be treated for shock, even though they appear normal and alert.
Shock may cause death if not treated properly, even though the injuries which brought on shock might not seem to be serious enough to cause death. In fact, a person may go into shock without having any physical injuries.
Shock should be treated in the following manner:

Keep the patient lying down and keep them from getting chilled, but do NOT apply a hot water bottle or other heat to their body.
Loosen clothing.
Keep their head lower than the legs and hips. But, if he/she has a head or check injury, or has difficulty breathing, keep their hed and shoulders slightly higher than the rest of the body.
Do not give the patient liquids.

Broken Bones

Any break in bone is called a fracture. If you think a person may have a fracture, treat it as though it were one. Otherwise, you may cause futher injury. For example, if an arm or leg is injured and bleeding, splint it as well as bandage it.
With any fracture, first look for bleeding and control it. Keep the patient comfortably warm and quiet, preferably lying down. If you have an ice bag, apply it to the fracture and ease the pain. Do not move the patient (unless his/her life is in danger) without first applying a splint or otehrwise immobilizing the fracture site and teh joint above and below the fracture site.
Treat the patient for shock

Burns

Non-serious superficial (first degree) burns should not be covered. If first degree burns covers a large area of the body, then patients should be given fluids to drink (add a teaspoon of salt and a half-teaspoon of baking soda to a quart of water and have the patient drink a half-glass every 15 minutes).
The most important things to do about serious (second and third degree) burns are: