Emergency first aid to stop bleeding fast

When someone is bleeding, particularly if its heavy, the first thing you need to do is NOT freak out.

Many people react badly to the sight of blood. Some panic if they see a lot of blood coming out of a wound or injury. But in order to really help the person you must keep things in perspective.

First off, a person can lose what seems to be a lot of blood and still be OK.

Imagine a 500ml bottle of water being splashed all over the place. Now imagine if all that water was blood! It would seem like a lot of blood. But in fact, 500ml of blood is about the amount they take from your body when you donate blood at the Red Cross. And you get up 15 minutes later and walk away totally OK. (Your body replaces ALL that blood within 1-2 days.)

Naturally you don't want the person bleeding to lose too much blood, but they can stand more loss than you probably imagine.

So, if someone is bleeding, and it is severe, the first action should be to call for medical attention or an ambulance if you don't feel like you can get the bleeding under control.

After calling for help, the next action is to apply DIRECT pressure on top of the wound. Use a clean cloth, tissues, paper towels, bandages or a piece of gauze. The goal is to keep pressing until the bleeding stops.

Now if the blood soaks through the material your first used don’t try to remove it. Leave it in place and put more cloth, bandage, tissue or gauze on top of it and continue to apply pressure. You are trying to help the body’s natural clotting mechanisms which are working to try and stem the loss of blood.

All that blood soaking into the first bandage you applied is all trying to clot together to seal the wound. If you pull it off, then the wound just opens up again and all that blood has been wasted when it could have been helping you to stop the bleeding.

Arm and leg bleeding

If the injury is on an arm or leg, try to position the person so you can raise their limb above their heart. This will help slow the rate of bleeding.

If after 5-10 minutes of firm and steady pressure on the wound, the bleeding can’t be stopped it’s time to call 000 if you haven’t already done so.

In an emergency situation like this, where a wound won’t stop bleeding you can use a tourniquet, while you wait for help, but don’t make it too tight. You want to slow the blood flow into the arm or leg, but not stop it completely.

For a tourniquet use anything you can. A belt, tie, even a shirt or T-shirt can be fashioned into something like a tourniquet. Remember to tie between the wound and the person's heart.

Once the bleeding has stopped, do what you can to clean up around the wound and the general area, but without removing the wound dressing which could start the bleeding again.

Wash your hands if you are going to clean and dress the wound properly. If you have antiseptic or antibiotic cream, apply that and dress with a sterile dressing. Don’t use Hydrogen Peroxide or Iodine to clean the wound as they can cause tissue damage.

Advise the person to clean and dry the wound daily and change the dressing to prevent infection and to speed healing.

Tell them to monitor the wound and if it shows signs of infection, redness, tenderness or develops a thick discharge, they should see their doctor. If they develop a fever, or the area around the womb feels numb or red streaks form around it, this is also another sign they should see a doctor.

Of course, if you come across someone with very severe bleeding or blood spurting out of a wound, call 000 immediately and attempt to stem the flow using pressure as above. Also call an ambulance if the person has a severe abdominal or chest wound, or you suspect internal bleeding.

Knowing how to apply emergency first aid to a bleeding wound is something you will learn in our first aid courses. You can do one mostly online these days. To find out more go to https://www.resultsfirstaid.com/courses