First Aid Myths You Still Do But Are Wrong

5 days ago

First aid is a part of our health life especially when there is an accident either at home, road, at work, or even accident when there is an emergency or an accident and we need to administer first aid, a lot of us do it wrongly and this is because we have wrong information or myths regarding it.

First thing, there is this common ritual of putting something into the mouth of people having seizures or convulsing especially in children. A lot of parents are so quick to put a spoon, hand, or even almost break open the teeth of the person having the seizure. Seizure has to do with the tightening of the muscles (fasciculation) and when this happens, they clench their jaws, and putting things in their mouth can cause them to break their teeth, or jaw, or cause any other type of severe injury.

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Another thing that we do a lot is sucking out snake venom after a snake bite. This is not right, and I have seen it being shown in so many movies. A snake biting you sends its venom very far and sucking it out isn’t the best thing to do. You will only be sucking out a little, possibly ingesting the venom, and possibly infecting the wound. To tie the region with a tourniquet is strongly advised against as it will not do any good. Preventing any form of muscle movement in the area will help slow the venom from reaching other parts of the body and finding your way to the hospital is the best option.

Another thing that I have seen in movies is people removing objects they were stabbed with from their bodies. This is completely wrong and it is just actors selling the wrong information. Removing objects used to stab will only lead to tissue damage and increased loss of blood. When stabbed, try to make sure that the foreign object doesn't move as it can damage other tissues in the area causing more injury.

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While what I said might sound ridiculous there are a lot of other ridiculous things that people do like putting butter on a burn. For goodness sake, your body isn't bread (either baked or toast). Putting butter on a burn is just going to trap the heat causing the heat to keep radiating and the burn to continue. Applying cool water not ~~cold~~ water on the surface to keep it clean and cool the burn down is enough while you seek medical help.

Cleaning wounds with rubbing alcohol is another painful thing that people do. Instead of that, using water and soap is good enough. A bandage on the wound is good enough to keep the bleeding down for a day or two after which putting antibiotics ointment and allowing it to receive air is great.

We are used to performing these acts to get things better and give solutions but when we do these things, we end up not doing any better instead we just create a cascade of negative effects and health results because the intention is not what matters instead it is the act.