LET’S TALK HEALTH — Maryam Khalfan — First Aid, the primary health care attention, which is given to an ill or injured person, is significantly important in saving lives. Hence, having knowledge about the principles of first aid is equally important in preventing the secondary effects that may arise due to inappropriate care.
However, as a matter of fact, if people are really determined to learn the basic concepts of First Aid, a lot of injuries and illnesses can characteristically be dealt with in a timely and successful way by any lay person until when professional medical attention is performed. Keeping healthy and safe at all times is every one’s priority when it comes to the attention given to either an individual’s own care or to the care that is given to other members of the family including the children and elderly alike.
But, given the fact that an emergency in terms of the well being of an individual may happen without any prior notice due to any form of a mishap or any other underlying sickness - knowing the basic skills of First Aid and safety as a tool of self preparedness is significantly important.
For instance, if a person either gets bleeding cut to any muscular part of the body or gets burnt with hot water or cooking oil or… what would be the immediate response to these kinds of an emergency?
Also, if a person either suddenly feels unconscious or faints or falls what would be the immediate response? Additionally, if for instance child gets chocked with either food or any other foreign object, what reaction would you take? Imagine, if you were caught up in such a quandary and the condition of the respective person or child is in critical condition, would you provide some First Aid to the casualty, or would you call or wait for the ambulance to arrive for assistance or would you rush the casualty to the nearest health care facility. Definitely, in such an emergency, in most cases the casualty would be panicking for safety and for those who do not know how to deal with any sort of an emergency would be helpless. But if a person is well acquainted with knowledge about First Aid, the problem can either be successfully managed or to a certain extent be controlled until professional medical attention is sought. In an incident that happened to a three year old girl within the writer’s residential vicinity, the child fond of putting whatever small objects she saw in her mouth suddenly attempted to swallow a 50 Baiza coin.
The coin got stuck in the girl’s little throat even as tears flowing from her wide opened eyes. Seeing the girl in critical situation, the mother attempted to insert her finger in the child’s throat to safeguard her child from chocking.
However, her reaction did more harm than good. And, that’s when she called for the assistance of one of her neighbours to drive them to the nearest hospital. Fortunately, her neighbour new some basic first aid skills. She held the child in an appropriate position and applied several strokes of back thrusts until when the child was relieved by vomiting it out. The child suffered mild bruises in the throat and was taken to hospital for professional medical care. But, what was important at the time was that the child’s life was saved from a traumatic injury of suffocation due to the rapid, timely and accurate attempt of administering the concept of First Aid.
And, this is when the importance of having the knowledge regarding the basic skills about “First Aid and Safety’ comes in. In this context, it is important that children and adults alike are familairised with the basic knowledge about first aid. It is also equally important a First Aid kit is placed at home and workplace.