English in a pill – Angielski w pigułce, Lesson 23

FIRST AID

First aid - immediate help, the care given before emergency medical help arrives - can literally mean the difference between life and death. But knowing the correct thing to do if someone has a nosebleed or cut is also important.

Top ten home accidents and injuries

• falls;
• strikes and collisions;
• cuts and tears;
• foreign bodies;
• acute overexertion, for example moving furniture;
• burns, scalds;
• pinching or crushing injuries;
• bites, stings;
• puncture wounds;
• suspected poisonings.

What not to do

There are many misconceptions surrounding first aid, some of which can cause serious harm.

Top ten first aid misconceptions

• 1. You should put butter or cream on a burn. The only thing you should put on a burn is cold water - keep the butter for cooking.
• 2-3. If you can't move a limb, it must be broken./If you can move a limb, it can't be broken.The only accurate way to diagnose a broken limb is to x-ray it.
• 4. The best way to treat bleeding is to put the wound under a tap. If you put a bleeding wound under a tap you wash away the body's clotting agents and make it bleed more.
• 5. Nosebleeds are best treated by putting the head back. If you put the head back during a nosebleed, all the blood goes down the back of the airway.
• 6. A tourniquet is the best way to treat serious bleeding. It's harmful to stop the blood flow to a limb for more than 10-15 minutes.
• 7. If someone has swallowed a poison you should make them sick. If you make someone sick by putting your fingers in their mouth, the vomit may block their airway.
• 8. If you perform CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) on someone who has a pulse, you can damage their heart. The evidence is that it isn't dangerous to do chest compressions on a casualty with a pulse.
• 9. You need lots of training to do first aid. You don't - what you mostly need is common sense. You can learn enough first aid in ten minutes to save someone's life.
• 10. You need lots of expensive equipment to do first aid. You don't need any equipment to do first aid, there are lots of ways to improvise anything you need.

Remember: anyone can save a life!

WORDS

• First-aid kit / Apteczka
• a nosebleed - krwawienie z nosa
• a strike - uderzenie, obicie
• a tear - rozcięcie
• foreign bodies - ciała obce
• overexertion - nadwyrężenie
• burns - oparzenia (ogień)
• scalds - oparzenia (wrzątek)
• to pinch - przytrzasnąć, np. palec drzwiami
• bites - ugryzienia
• stings - ukąszenia
• puncture wounds - rany kłute
• poisonings - zatrucia
• misconceptions - błędne przekonanie
• harm - szkoda
• a limb - kończyna
• a tap - kran
• clotting - krzepnięcie
• a tourniquet - opaska uciskowa
• CPR - reanimacja
• common sense - zdrowy rozsądek

A joke

Blond First Responder

- How come you're late? - asked the bartender, as the blonde waitress walked into the bar.

- It was awful - she explained. - I was walking down Elm street and there was a terrible accident. A man was thrown from his car and he was lying in the middle of the street. His leg was broken, his skull was fractured, and there was blood everywhere. Thank God I took that first-aid course.

- What did you do? - asked the bartender.

- I sat down and put my head between my knees to keep from fainting!

• a bartender - barman
• a skull - czaszka
• to fracture - złamać
• to faint - zemdleć

„Farmacja i ja”, październik 2009