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Some General Questions


Hawk Eye

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First off, I'm not really sure where to put this, but these are questions that have been nagging at me for a while.

1) You arrive at a multiple car collision, with multiple injured patients, with lots of bleeding, yet you have less gloves than patients. What do you do? Do we keep the same pair of gloves on or try and find an alternative such as a plastic bag?

2) Someone suffers a high collision impact (such as falling down stairs or getting knocked over by a motor vehicle), there is a wound on the patients back, and you would like to seal it, yet you are unsure if the patient has a fractured neck, spine or some serious other bone.

3) Someone suffers a high collision impact (like above), and has a broken rib, he/she is not breathing and you need to perform CPR, will it be safe to do so or will pushing down on the rib do more harm than good?

I'm sorry if these questions are trivial, I suppose that I will learn all of this when I go to collage, but currently I am only in Grade 11. On the topic of question 1, I carry a pair of gloves in my bag [never know what could happen {a car barrel rolled in front of the school last year}], so yeah... Always good to be prepared. xD

Thanks very much for reading.:phone:

Devin

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First off, I'm not really sure where to put this, but these are questions that have been nagging at me for a while.

1) You arrive at a multiple car collision, with multiple injured patients, with lots of bleeding, yet you have less gloves than patients. What do you do? Do we keep the same pair of gloves on or try and find an alternative such as a plastic bag?

In this instance - the gloves you have are to protect you. No need to worry about switching between patients. This is a special situation.

2) Someone suffers a high collision impact (such as falling down stairs or getting knocked over by a motor vehicle), there is a wound on the patients back, and you would like to seal it, yet you are unsure if the patient has a fractured neck, spine or some serious other bone.

We have ways to address this and still maintain a neutral, inline position of the neck. It's referred to as "Holding c-spine" or "c-spine control" while rolling the patient to address any life threatening wounds. If it's minor, we don't worry about a bandage.

3) Someone suffers a high collision impact (like above), and has a broken rib, he/she is not breathing and you need to perform CPR, will it be safe to do so or will pushing down on the rib do more harm than good?

If your patient isn't breathing and doesn't have a pulse, CPR is your first priority. If you don't start CPR, he's dead any way.

I'm sorry if these questions are trivial, I suppose that I will learn all of this when I go to collage, but currently I am only in Grade 11. On the topic of question 1, I carry a pair of gloves in my bag [never know what could happen {a car barrel rolled in front of the school last year}], so yeah... Always good to be prepared. xD

Thanks very much for reading.:phone:

Devin

Don't apologize for the questions. It's good for us (okay, me) to keep my mind sharp.

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Questions were answered well. The only thing I would add for a layperson is to not worry about doing correct, textbook CPR. ANYTHING is better than nothing. You cannot hurt someone who is already dead, you cannot make their situation worse, and if you are performing CPR on anyone older than 60 or so, chances are you WILL break a rib or 2. At that point, as was mentioned, a fractured rib is the least of the person's problems. If they survive, you can apologize later about breaking a rib or 2, but trust me- they will not hold it against you.

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Hawk Eye: You're the first SA new member in a long while on this site. Welcome.

I do suggest you keep in mind, while there are some universal protocols, as mentioned just in this string, there will be others where, were I to do what you do, or you to do what I do, is going to be in violation of some kind of local ordinance. Just follow my "mantra" of following YOUR local protocols, as mine could be different. Protocols can differ by city, county/parrish, state/provence, or country, so keep that in mind when looking at suggested actions, even from me.

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Those are actually great questions! And absolutely correct answers. But I'm curious, what prompted you to ask them? Are you in an EMS class, or help out, or is EMS just a curiosity/hobby for you? No right answer here brother, just curious what your perspective is...

And tcripp, you're rockin' that medic uniform!!

:wub:

Dwayne

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Those are actually great questions! And absolutely correct answers. But I'm curious, what prompted you to ask them? Are you in an EMS class, or help out, or is EMS just a curiosity/hobby for you? No right answer here brother, just curious what your perspective is...

And tcripp, you're rockin' that medic uniform!!

:wub:

Dwayne

Becoming a paramedic is something I've wanted to do for a long time, these questions come from what I've learnt from scouts on First Aid and my own basic genera first aid knowledge.

Forgot to thank the rest of you for answering my questions. :)

Thank you.

btw, is there an edit function on here so that I can edit my above post? I can't seem to find one...

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Becoming a paramedic is something I've wanted to do for a long time, these questions come from what I've learnt from scouts on First Aid and my own basic genera first aid knowledge.

Forgot to thank the rest of you for answering my questions. :)

Thank you.

btw, is there an edit function on here so that I can edit my above post? I can't seem to find one...

You can only edit for....hmmm....and hour or so I think? I'm not sure. It may be half an hour for regular members and 90 minutes for paid members? The reason being is that people used to give an opinion, people would respond, the person would feel foolish and go back and change their opinion thus making all the posts that followed look foolish or completely nonsensical.

Welcome, it's good to have you here!

Dwayne

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Hawk eye welcome to the city!! Those are some great questions and as mentioned great answers! Feel free to ask questions and check out posts from other members as you will find some great information being posted on this site.

Brian :wave:

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