Things that can kill you quickly: What everyone should know about first aid

I took an emergency medical response course in college (~40 hours, all in-person, with a mix of verbal lessons and practical exercises in each class), and the most important thing I learned was that having memorized what to do in an emergency is not sufficient to get you to actually act. [ETA: Also, to call 911 in an emergency!]

I got 100% on the written test and still remember much of it to this day, but I am an absolutely terrible person to go to in an emergency because I panic and freeze every time. I've seen this play out in myself many times over my life, not only when witnessing real falls, car accidents, and other incidents, but even in the practical exam for the course. The exam involved diagnosing and describing the treatment for instructors acting out different emergency scenarios, and while there were other contributing factors, ultimately the fact remains that I got 0% on the practical and failed the course because I had a panic attack and had to leave.

Knowing how to do chest compressions on a dummy is better than not knowing how to do that. But doing chest compressions on a dummy is extremely different from being faced with an unresponsive person, knowing that they'll die if you don't act, and knowing that even if you successfully save their life, administering CPR means a good chance of breaking some of their ribs. It's better to know how to drag someone out of a burning building than to not know, but dragging an unconscious person through a smoky inferno is going to be different than doing the same motion in a brightly-lit classroom with a conscious and cooperative partner, where there are no real stakes for messing up.

On balance I'm still glad I took the course. But I caution anyone against thinking that just studying flashcards is sufficient preparation for real-life emergencies — at the very least, take a class like Jason did, with some in-person practical components.

Calling 911 or your local emergency number is also a good default action because the call taker should be trained to walk you through some of the things the post described.

Don't be afraid of creating duplicate 911 calls for something like a big fire or car crash. Merging duplicates and rapidly closing out unnecessary calls is the communications center's job, not yours.

Expect to be asked for a description of the problem and your location. Don't worry if you don't know an exact address. You may also be asked for your phone number.

It is also OK to indicate that you are uncertain about something such as whether or not the patient is breathing.

One (potentially) big exception to the doing something is better than doing nothing rule, is applying a tourniquet. I have heard in my wilderness safety class that if you apply a tourniquet to a limb, it will probably need to be amputated, and this should only be done if you're confident it's necessary. Applying pressure to a wound that you're bleeding from should always be the first thing you try.

I added the "potentially" above, because I'm having trouble verifying that claim online. The Mayo Clinic says "Having a tourniquet in place for two or fewer hours — the time in which most patients can get to a hospital — should not have any ill effects beyond those caused by the injury requiring the tourniquet. It typically takes at least 4 to 6 hours for tourniquets to cause harm."[1] I think this may be the difference between advice for wilderness training, where you are often >4 hours from a hospital, and first aid training for incidents that may happen in everyday life.  Of course, the farther you are from a hospital, the greater the risk of actually bleeding out, and it's better to lose a limb than one's life, so I think you just need to be careful to weigh the risks.

FWIW, most people without training will not apply a improvised tourniquet correctly anyway, so it probably won't make much of a difference either way, but I thought this knowledge was worth sharing.

[1] https://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/trauma/news/the-crucial-role-of-tourniquets-in-trauma-care/mac-20531726

Nice! I've done a few First Aid courses, and I always forget the key ideas, I look forward to reviewing this content and keeping on top of it. 

I converted these cards into Thought Saver flashcards; it's much easier for new spaced repetition users to give it a go, and you can embed it directly into forum posts!
 

This is short, has good object level advice, and points at a useful general lesson.

A lot of LessWrong articles are meta. They're about how to find out about things, or abstract theories about how to make decisions. This article isn't like that. Learning the specific lesson it's trying to teach takes minutes, and might save a life. Not "might save a life" as in "the expected value means somewhere out there in the distant world or distant future the actuarial statistics might be a little different." "Might save a life" as in "that person who, if it comes up, you will be able to see and hear and reach out and touch? That person might live, not die." I don't think this is controversial. As far as I know, basically everyone agrees tourniquets are good. That's information I want more people to see!

I'd have liked this article more if it had a little more detail. The paragraph with the one sentence instructions for CPR is good. I want another paragraph for tourniquets like that, and another for how packing the wound works. (I'd like to submit "wrap cloth as tightly as you can around the wounded limb just above the injury, not on a joint." That ignores the tightening crank but it's better than nothing.) Not a lot more detail! Just a couple paragraphs or links to short videos.

For context, I grew up in a rural area about an hour away from the nearest hospital. We learned first aid early and we had to use it once in a while. I like to hike for fun, and that also regularly places me an hour away from a hospital. First aid is important! You may never need it, but when you need it you want to know right now and you don't want to have to fumble with google and search terms. You might not even have cell service to look anything up if you're in a rural area or there's been a disaster.

Should this specific lesson be the focus of LessWrong? No, but I do support having one post, maybe even one post a year, reminding us of some important basics. The general lesson, that doing the obvious thing to improve a bad situation is a good idea, is one I also support and would love to see more widely.

I have a standard car first-aid kit in my backpack. One like this one on Amazon (no affiliate, just the first that came up). I also put some aspirins in there, an antihistamine for allergic reactions, and a wound clot treatment (many like this on Amazon - not the one I got in Germany).

Could you recommend (or link to a recommendation) of what first aid kit to buy? What should it contain? How expensive should it be? Where should I buy it from?

it is probably better to attempt CPR or the Heimlich maneuver than to do nothing

My problem: I can't tell if someone's heart is beating. I think I even studied CPR specifically when I was young, but I find pulse-checking difficult and unreliable. And what happens if you clumsily CPR someone whose heart is beating?

The most important thing I learned is that if you find yourself in an emergency situation, it is better to do almost anything rather than nothing. Again, if someone stops breathing for any reason, they have only minutes to live. They are dead by default, unless someone intervenes. There is very little you can do to them that is worse than cutting off their oxygen.

In fact, it is probably better to attempt CPR or the Heimlich maneuver than to do nothing, even if you have never been trained and are only guessing, or mimicking what you have seen on television.

Unfortunately the legal system doesn't reflect this.