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 and put on disposable gloves.
• Call emergency services if necessary. If you are alone, treat life-threatening bleeding before making the emergency call. 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 not to spread the corrosive substance to surrounding tissue and thereby cause chemical burns over larger areas. 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, elevate the wound area whenever possible, for example by holding the injured arm or leg up. This helps to stop the bleeding. Press the compress onto the wound. If this does not stop the bleeding, wrap the bandage twice over the compress, then place a sealed dressing pack wrapped in plastic (an opened pack absorbs blood and therefore cannot apply compression to the area) on the wound area and wrap the rest of the bandage tightly over it. Pressure should be applied to the bleeding to stop it. If the area beyond the wound turns blue, the bandage is too tight and should be loosened, but under no circumstances removed. If blood soaks through the bandage, apply a second pressure bandage over the first. To do this, place the second dressing pack on top of the first one already in place.

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 humerus-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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