How to use First Aid to treat someone for Smoke Inhalation

You can save someone from smoke inhalation if you know First Aid

Winter is the worst time of the year for people to suffer from smoke inhalation. It's therefore the best time to learn how to treat someone with first aid for smoke inhalation.

Naturally during winter with so many people using open fireplaces, wood stoves, cooking fires, etc there is a dramatically increased risk of house fires. These can also be caused by electric radiators overheating, candles setting curtains on fire etc,

What most people don't know about all these house fires is that 50% of deaths caused by them, result from smoke inhalation, not people actually being burnt to death.

So it's vitally important to know what to do when someone inhales a lot of smoke because this can dramatically increase their chance of survival and recovery.

What happens to your body when you inhale smoke?

Smoke, especially from a fire, affects the body in many different ways.

When you breathe in smoke, it's not just harmful gases that enter your lungs. You also breathe in actual small particles contained in the smoke. These can inflame your lungs and airways, causing them to swell up. This swelling inside your lungs and bronchial tubes can lead to blockages that prevent oxygen transferring into your bloodstream. Oxygen is the most vital thing you need to keep your body alive, so when it gets blocked or heavily reduced, your body starts effectively dying almost immediately.

All these effects on your body from smoke getting into your lungs can lead to acute respiratory distress. This means your “breathing system” just isn’t able to function normally and that can lead to respiratory failure, which in turn leads to cardiac arrest and death.

How to help someone suffering from smoke inhalation

What should you do if you come across someone suffering smoke inhalation?

If they are in a smoke-filled room, the first thing to do is get them out of there as quickly as possible into fresh air, if it is safe to do so. Call 000 while you administer first aid.

Next you should check their vital signs. Are they breathing normally? Are they coughing severely? Check their airways to see if there is anything blocking their lungs or if they are clear. Are they unconscious? Do they have a pulse?

If they are conscious try to keep them calm and stop them from trying to “over-breathe” as this can lead to hyperventilation. Help them to relax and just breathe a regular, steady pace.

If they are getting enough oxygen into their lungs and seem calm and are breathing heavily, stay with them till help arrives.

But if they go unconscious immediately start applying CPR, including if possible the mouth-to-mouth breaths. It is very important that you try to get as much oxygen into their lungs as possible.

If they stay unconscious, but don't go into cardiac arrest, maintain CPR for as long as you can, even if you have to take short breaks.

The constant pumping of blood through their body keeps oxygen going into their vital organs to keep them alive and to minimise the risk of organ failure. Adding the mouth to mouth breathing or "rescue breaths" as they are now called, keeps putting as much oxygen into their lungs as possible.

If the person does go into full cardiac arrest, keep going with CPR if you don’t have a defibrillator or AED as it sometimes called. If you can get your hands on one then use it. If you've never used one before, don't worry just turn it on and it will tell you what to do.

If you don't have access to a "defib" or can't get one, then simply keep up the CPR. It's even more vital after a cardiac arrest.

Keep working on them until medical help arrives. All ambulances have oxygen supplies which if administered quickly to the person can help them recover much better from the smoke inhalation.

Of course if you don’t know how to do CPR, why not book in today to get trained with Results First Aid. Book now at https://www.resultsfirstaid.com/courses