What is First Aid?
First aid is simply the help given to a sick or injured person until full medical treatment is available. It is the provision of immediate care.
It usually effected by a lay person and performed within a limited skill range and is normally performed until the injury or illness is satisfactorily dealt with or until the next level of care arrives. This next level of care is usually an ambulance or doctor.
At any moment, within seconds, you or someone around you could experience an injury or illness. Using basic first aid, you may be able to stop a minor mishap from getting worse. In the case of a life-threatening emergency, you may even save a life.
To provide first aid you don’t necessarily have to be first aider, though it would help tremendously. This is because providing first aid starts with laypeople who can recognize the medical emergency and act quickly.
You provide the initial support to help a victim survive, lessen their pain, reassure them, make them comfortable, etc. until professional help arrives with your main objectives being to:
- Preserve life
- Prevent the condition from worsening
- Promote recovery and also importantly
- Provide comfort and reassurance.
Limitations
The nature of first aid means that most people will only have a limited knowledge and so it is important to FIRST seek professional help or get it as soon as possible. One can do this by calling or having someone call an emergency number. In Lagos, Nigeria, this emergency number is 767 or 112.
The risks of accidentally doing further injury to a victim and even the helper sustaining injury themselves while applying aid, can often outweigh the benefits of applying immediate treatment.
Do you know First Aid? Can you help someone in a medical emergency?
First Aid by Levande is a service offered by Levande Healthcare Ltd. Do you need a first aid training or a first aid kit? Click to see all the first aid trainings and our first aid kits. Call us on 08177321761 or check our contact page to see other ways to connect with us.
