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Emergencies and First Aid Kits
You never know when something is going to happen so it’s necessary to have a first aid kit. Unfortunately, injuries are common and so it’s important to be prepared. The perfect scenario is to have a kit in both your car and home and they need to be placed in convenient spots. First aid kits need to have all of the basic necessities in them.
Supplies should include: adhesive tape, hand sanitizer, antiseptic solutions, bandages, cotton balls and a cold pack, cotton swabs, gauze pads, scissors, tweezers, needles, antibiotic ointment, a thermometer, plastic gloves, and a plastic bags.
As far as medical supplies go there should be aloe vera gel, anti-diarrheal medicine like Pepto Bismol, antihistamine medications like Benadryl, as well as Aspirin and other pain relievers. Along with calamine lotion, hypocortisone cream, and personal medications.
Other emergency items that may be placed in the first aid kit include a cell phone and charger, emergency phone numbers, every family member’s medical history along with consent forms, a flashlight with extra batteries, sunscreen, a candle, an emergency blanket, and some candy or food.
Now even though you may have all of these things in your first aid kit and it’s in a convenient location, it’s essential for individuals to communicate with those in their household where the kit is. And another important thing to do is keep it up to date. If the medications are past date then they most likely won’t do anything to help you or a loved one in an emergency. So every six months when you change the clock and check the batteries on the smoke detector, also check your first aid kit. Make sure that the batteries for the flashlight work and that the medication and supplies haven’t expired.
It is also important for individuals to know how to administer first aid. They should know what to do for a burn verses a cut, and how to perform CPR and the Heimlich Maneuver. For a burn, individuals want to remove clothing from burned areas except where it’s stuck to the skin. Then you should run cool water over the burn, and then lightly wrap gauze around it, and then give some kind of pain reliever to the burn victim if they’re awake and wait for the ambulance. Now for cuts, individuals need to rinse the wound and apply pressure and raise the limb in order to slow the bleeding, then when the bleeding stops cover the injury with a clean bandage.
As far as choking goes, if the individual can still breathe it means their airway isn’t completely blocked and it’s best not to do anything. But if the individual was choking and is unconscious or isn’t breathing anymore, call for help and start performing CPR. Choking can be frightening especially if individuals don’t know how to perform CPR. So, learn how to perform CPR and a life whether it’s a stranger of family member may be saved as a result.
The time to prepare for an emergency is right now. The first step is compiling a first aid kit and then learning how to treat different injuries and wounds as well as conditions. It is also important to learn CPR and the Heimlich Maneuver. By preparing now, you may eventually save a life.
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Author: MargoSmith
Margo Smith earned her B.S. from Brigham Young University. She lives along the Wasatch Front and loves the beauty and solidity of the Rocky Mountains she calls home. She is an eager learner, an avid reader, and a firm believer that people are basically good at heart. Word play is her favorite past time and patterns/tessellations of any kind fascinate her. She thanks her Irish luck - gotta love that gene pool - that she is usually the driver behind the police car, rather than the one in front. Follow her on twitter