Wound care

Back to the person you found. They may have one or more wounds from the fall that you now need to treat. Your priorities are to stop any bleeding and prevent infection.

There are some basic principles of wound care to keep in mind:

• First, protect yourself put on disposable gloves.
• Call emergency services if necessary. If a wound is bleeding so heavily that its life-threatening and you are alone, treat it before calling. If another helper is available, they can make the emergency call.
• Do not touch the wound.
• Do not rinse the wound unless one of the exceptions listed below applies.
• Do not remove foreign objects.
• Do not use home remedies.

Bite wounds can be rinsed with a soap solution. Burns, scalds, and chemical burns can be cooled or rinsed with clean water. With chemical burns, take care that the corrosive substance is not spread to surrounding tissue and causes larger areas to be damaged. Burns and scalds should be cooled with water at about 20 °C for no more than five minutes.

Normally you should cover wounds as cleanly as possible, using a sterile compress if available. A prepackaged dressing contains a bandage with an integrated compress. If the wound is not bleeding heavily, place the compress over the wound and secure it with the bandage.

Do not open blisters to avoid infection.

For bleeding wounds, raise the injured area if possible for example by holding up the injured arm or leg. This helps to stop the bleeding. Press the compress onto the wound. If the bleeding does not stop, wrap the bandage twice over the compress, then place a sealed, plastic-wrapped dressing pack (an opened pack soaks up blood and therefore cannot provide compression) on the wound area and wrap the rest of the bandage tightly over it. Pressure should be applied to stop the bleeding. If the area below the wound turns blue, the bandage is too tight and should be loosened, but never removed. If the dressing soaks through, apply a second pressure dressing over the first. The second dressing pack is placed on top of the existing one.

If that still doesn't stop the bleeding, press the artery supplying the injured area at a point closer to the body than the wound.

On the upper arm you can find it on the inside of the arm between the biceps and the upper arm bone you can feel it pulsing.

For leg injuries, the point to press is roughly in the middle of the groin crease. Kneel on the opposite side and wrap your hands around the thigh so that both thumbs press on the spot. This presses the blood vessel against the bone and stops blood flow.

At the neck, do not compress or apply a pressure dressing. Instead, press a compress on the wound only, so as not to impair the person's breathing.

Injuries to the torso are also treated by pressing compresses onto the wound. If possible, a pressure dressing may be applied.

As already mentioned, foreign objects are not removed from the wound. Removing them can worsen or cause bleeding. Cover the foreign object with a clean dressing without applying pressure. Protruding objects should be padded and left in place, and the injured body part should be kept as still as possible.

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