First Aid for Broken Bones

Preventing broken bones. Many accidents that cause broken bones occur in the home, on the playing field, and on the highway. Falls account for many accidental fractures in the home and on the playing field. Walking, automobile, and bicycle accidents account for many fractures on the highway.

You can prevent those kinds of accidents if you observe some safety rules for the home, the highway, and the playing field. When you are walking or riding along a roadway, you should observe the rules of the road. Walkers should walk on the left side of the highway. Bicycle riders should ride on the right side of the road.

Automobile drivers are never sure whether a bicycle rider will swerve out into traffic. For this reason you should be careful to ride close to the edge of the road. You should never swerve out into the roadway without giving the proper hand signal and looking both ways. Observing these highway rules can prevent an accident that could break your arm or leg and possibly cause even more severe injuries.

When you play sports such as hockey, basketball, baseball, and football, you should be careful to wear the proper clothing and use the proper equipment. If you wear the wrong kind of shoes or forget essential protective equipment, you could receive painful cuts or broken bones. It is also important that you play these rough sports in a supervised area. In that way, there will always be an adult nearby if an accident should occur.

The home may be the greatest "bone breaker" of all. Because everyone spends so much time at home, everyone has a great opportunity for severe falls. Older people in particular are likely to receive broken bones from falls in the home. An older person’s bones are brittle and break easily. He has to be particularly careful of the high hazard areas of the home.

The danger of falls may be greatly increased by loose stair treads, small rugs that are not fastened down, objects left on stairs, upturned carpet edges, and highly polished wood or tile floors. You can see that the cellar stairs, the kitchen, and hallways with small rugs would be high hazard areas for falls. If you can eliminate these hazards, you will be helping to prevent accidents that can cause broken bones.

Finding a fracture. More serious than a strain or a sprain is a fractured bone. It is not always easy to see whether an accident victim has a fracture. Sometimes a person may mistake a sprain for a break, and at other times he may not be able to feel any break at all. If he is unconscious, it may be very hard to find a fractured bone even though it might be a serious fracture.

Sometimes a victim will feel a bone break or recognize a fracture because he is unable to move a limb properly. In other cases, you must check for swelling, tenderness, an unnatural shape or position of a body part, or pain on motion. If the results of your investigation indicate that a bone may be broken, you should apply first-aid measures. No harm can be done by treating the victim if there is no break, and great harm may occur if you leave a fracture untreated.

Treatment of a fracture. Whether the break is a simple fracture or a compound fracture, the first-aid treatment is the same: keep the injured part of the body immobile. It is best to accomplish this without moving the victim., He should be made comfortable and warm, and kept cheerful until a doctor can be summoned.

If the victim is in immediate danger, or must be moved to a place where he can be given medical attention, other steps may be necessary. In this event, the broken part should be splinted with some stiffening device such as boards, rolled newspaper, cardboard, or sticks. These should be padded to prevent injury and additional pain. The illustrations on page 47 show some methods of applying splints.

In any case of a broken bone, you should not attempt to set the bone yourself. Only a doctor has the skill necessary to give proper treatment. In the case of a compound fracture, do not attempt to push the exposed bones back into the flesh. Cover the break with a sterile bandage or pad and let the doctor give the proper treatment.

Complications. In any case involving broken bones, there may be complications. You will remember from your study of general first-aid rules that shock is usually present in an accident of this sort. Severe bleeding, internal injuries, and sprains may be other complications. If you remember to keep calm and look for all injuries that require treatment, you will be able to give excellent first aid.

First Aid for Shock and Burns

Shock. Most people suffer shock after an accident. Consequently, it is a good idea to treat all accident victims for shock.

Doctors know that one of the causes of shock is a partial collapse of the circulatory system. Therefore, the treatment for shock is to get the patient to a doctor or hospital where he may be given plasma or a blood transfusion. For this reason you should call an ambulance or a doctor immediately.

Quite often a person in shock has suffered a loss of blood, either through a wound or internal injuries. However, this is not always the case. A person in shock is usually pale and listless. His body processes are slow. Perspiration may appear on his face. He may vomit or feel nauseous.

If the shock is severe, the patient may be unconscious. In this case, give no fluids, but lay the patient down and elevate his feet slightly. Call a doctor at once.

Electric current injury. Do not confuse shock with electric shock (electrocution ). The two conditions are not similar and are treated differently. The treatment for electric shock is artificial respiration because a shock may stop breathing. Treatment for burns is also given, because electric current accidents often involve severe burns.

Burns. One of the most common and most painful injuries is a burn. Burns may be caused by heat, chemicals, sunlight, or electricity. They may be mild (first degree), severe (second degree), or very severe (third degree). In any of them, good first aid may relieve considerable pain and may save a life.

First aid for burns. The best first aid for any burn is simple and easy to remember. If possible, plunge the burned area in ice water immediately. If you cannot plunge the burned part into water, you can apply ice or very cold water to the burned area. Wet sterile cloths or ice packs are good for this. Keep the burn chilled until the victim can be taken to a doctor.

Placing ice water or cold water on the burn relieves pain very well. It also helps prevent further tissue damage within the burned area.

This treatment is very effective and may be used for all burns, whether slight first-degree burns or very severe third-degree burns.

If the skin of the burned area is not broken, you may cover the burn with a sterile pad and bandage it loosely.

Burns of the eye. In the case of a chemical burn to the eye, immediate first aid is necessary. Wash the eye with great quantities of water. It is extremely important to remove every trace of the chemical, especially if a strong alkali is the harmful substance. This first aid is so important that the first-aider should continue pouring water over the open eye even while the victim is being transported to a doctor or hospital.