Injuries have become a fundamental part of our everyday life, it has now become equally important to study first aid. However, the cardinal rule of studying first aid and eventually applying it is to treat every extremity injury as a fracture unless proven otherwise. X-rays are necessary to eventually rule out a fracture, but till then you need to treat those injuries as fractures. Knowing first aid can easily make a difference between a comfortable future, and a not so comfortable one. So get your first aid training, and till you are doing that, have a look at these tips, and memorize them.
Broken bones and Fracture – To do and not to do
Broken bones consist of lot of assortments. There can be broken leg bones, or broken finger bones, or even a broken foot or a wrist. Every extremity requires a special sort of an attention. Hence you can’t just apply cold water to them all; you need to be aware of where the injury has occurred.
1. Ring for the ambulance: The first thing you should do if the broken bone area has started to turn blue is call the ambulance immediately. Do not under any circumstance try to take on a broken bone of such severe condition. Experts are there for a reason, and first aid teaches you to identify when you are out of your league and need to call in a doctor. So do not try to sort the injury out yourself and leave it to the experts.
2. No straightening – only elevating: Do not try to straighten the deformed area as that requires special care and skills. Straightening a certain part of the patient’s extremity requires a lot of expertness. Amateurs should never take on such a huge task and try to straighten all by themselves.
Elevate the deformed area if the injury starts to swell. This is because swelling suffocates the surrounding blood vessels and that can lead to a lot of complications. Hence take the easy path and just elevate the injured body part. After elevating, keep the injured area as immobile as possible, because even the slightest movement can cause a lot of unbearable pain as well as increase the swelling.
3. Cold water soothes the injury: Keep on applying cold water and ice to that area, to avoid further swelling. This application of cold water will slow down the metabolic rate hence protecting the injured area as well as reduce the swelling.
4. Drugs help: Drugs like ibuprofen can help reduce the pain so should be taken by the patient.
5. A big no.
• Applying any sort of pressure to the injured area is absolutely forbidden. It will increase the swelling and the pains going to be a lot less bearable.
• Don’t let the patient apply any sort of pressure on the injury either. May that be a direct pressure or indirect.
• Keep food and liquid away from the patient. They might increase the metabolic rate; consequently increasing the swelling and pain as well. So stay clear of them.