- When the (beep) hits the fan,
this video could save your life.
(upbeat music)
What happens if you find yourself in a desperate need
of medical help and you can't get to a hospital or call 911?
What the heck do you do?
You should be armed with life-saving information.
Having the right knowhow could very well mean
the difference between life and death
for you or a loved one.
So pay close attention.
These are some of the dos and don'ts
of three life threatening scenarios,
from gunshot wounds to frostbite and even heart attacks.
But of course, if you're experiencing a medical emergency,
please call 911, or you're country's equivalent.
Get to a hospital as soon as you possibly can.
If you don't have the luxury,
hopefully this video will buy you a few extra minutes
or help out in some small way.
All right, let's dive right in.
Number one: heart attack.
What do you do if you suspect you or someone you love
is experiencing a heart attack?
Can you stop it?
Short answer, no,
but maybe you can reduce the severity until help can arrive.
Heart attacks are serious life and death situations
and occur when the flow of blood to the heart is blocked.
There are many things that can cause the blockage,
but in the event of a true emergency,
the only thing that truly matters is being able
to properly identify the symptoms and attempt to handle it.
First and foremost, know that the symptoms.
They range for sure, but here are the common symptoms:
pressure or tightness, squeezing pain in your chest
that can spread to the neck, jaw, or back.
One could also feel abdominal pain
or like they want to throw up
or even like they are experiencing indigestion or heartburn.
Other noticeable signs are shortness of breath, cold sweats,
fatigue, or sudden dizziness.
From there, you've determined someone is having
a heart attack, or likely having a heart attack.
What the heck do you do?
If you cannot get to the hospital,
first determine if the person is conscious or unconscious.
If they are conscious or awake,
immediately give them aspirin.
So long as they don't have some other sort of allergy
or other prescription that can interact with it.
Taking aspirin during a heart attack
could reduce heart damage
by helping to keep your blood from clotting.
Also, the best position is on the floor
with a person's knees bent
and their head and shoulder supported.
On the other hand, in the worst case scenario,
the person is unconscious, you gotta first check to see
if they are breathing and have a pulse.
To check if they are breathing,
tilt their chin up and back to open the airway
and then put your face close to their face
so you can feel the breath on your or cheek,
and then look to see if their chest is rising
and falling with breaths.
Now to check their pulse, place these two fingers,
your index and your middle finger
at the base of their thumb just underneath the bone.
If the person isn't breathing or you do not find a pulse,
you should begin CPR.
Normally I would never ever suggest it
to an untrained person, but in the event of life or death,
you gotta at least try and help.
CPR, in the most simplest terms, is push hard and fast
on a person's chest at about 100
to 120 compressions a minute.
This is about the same pace as a song "Stayin' Alive."
♪ Stayin' alive ♪
With CPR, don't do like this, okay?
That's not enough force.
Do it from your shoulders.
You're going the whole body, okay?
Don't worry, I'll link to other videos showing CPR,
if you need it.
Now, other things that you can do if you're home alone
and this is happening to you, call 911,
lay down by the front door of your house,
and unlock the front door,
or put yourself in a very visible location
so that paramedics can have easy access to you.
Number two lifesaving scenario if you cannot call 911:
gunshot wounds.
I'll repeat it again.
Getting to the hospital or calling for emergency help
is always your first line of defense
as it gives a victim the best odds of survival.
But if it is truly the worst case scenario
and you cannot immediately get to the hospital,
you need to be aware of these tips.
First things first, get out of the line of fire.
Second thing for any generic GSW
is the stopping of the bleeding.
This is crucial.
If there is a visible hole, wash your hands or use gloves,
if that's an option,
and put a lot of pressure on the wound.
Seriously, don't be shy.
Stick your fingers right in the wound
or use something else to apply direct hard pressure
to this area.
If the patient is screaming, it is okay.
A lot of people's first thought is to go quickly
to a tourniquet, but that is not necessarily the best step
as it doesn't always apply the right amount of pressure
to the right area.
And using them properly takes practice.
Direct pressure with your hand or fingers is better.
The only time you would use a real tourniquet
or some other sort of makeshift one,
like a belt apparatus or bandana-type tourniquet,
would be if you cannot use your fingers
or hand for direct pressure.
Say you got shot right here
and your brachial artery is bleeding everywhere.
Take one or two fingers, direct pressure,
boom, the blood has stopped.
Hard pressure.
If I were to circumference with the tourniquet,
I'm gonna kill everything down below
when all I have to do is stick a finger.
I need that blood flow to get to the other parts of my arm.
So I don't cause ischemia.
And then the whole arm dies.
Another don't when it comes to GSWs
is don't elevate the legs.
This will change the blood flow and maybe even impact
the way that the patient it's breathing.
Just don't do it.
You increase the blood to the core.
You're gonna bleed out wound.
Next important step.
We also have to adjust specifically where the GSW is located
on the body.
I'll go over a few quick areas that I typically see
in the ER, chest.
Chest wounds can injure the heart,
the lungs, aortic, et cetera, and can be very deadly.
Some of these wounds can also create
a seal sucking situation where it allows air to enter
but not out of the chest.
We don't want that.
For this type of wound, you wanna seal the wound.
You want an occlusive dressing.
So when you take a deep breath in
it doesn't suck any air in, but when you take a breath out,
you actually want some air to sneak out.
So a good makeshift occlusive dressing
if you don't have like gauze and permeated with petroleum,
it's like a piece of plastic, okay.
Or it's an enwrap or something to that nature.
It doesn't allow any air in or out
but this way you have a small flap on the corner.
But a word of caution.
If the victim is having trouble breathing
or the breathing gets worse
after you put the seal on in this area, just remove it.
Another area to be aware of for GSWs is the neck
or the back.
This is a super tricky area where any movement
condemns a spinal cord or cause permanent issues
like paralysis.
Besides, paralysis and spinal cord injuries,
you have your major blood vessels through your neck,
your carotid in your jugulars.
Those could be ripped as shred
and you can bleed out pretty fast.
That area, make sure if you're bleeding direct pressure
don't put a ton of gauze
and don't do a circumferential wrap,
'cuz you'll actually choke the person to death.
Another common misconception, removing bullets.
This is a big one, depending on where it is in your body.
Nine outta 10 times.
You do not.
I repeat, do not remove the bullet.
You may do more damage trying to get it out.
Also keep in mind that someone with a gunshot wound
might have substantial internal injuries.
- I'm picking up a distress signal in the liver Morty.
- That could lead to difficulties
with breathing, low blood pressure,
and even heart issues.
Begin CPR immediately if they're not breathing
and maintain strong pressure to the wound
to try and stop the bleeding at the same time.
The next bad life threatening scenario
you may have to unfortunately deal with, frostbite.
Frostbite is an injury caused by freezing of the skin
and underlying tissue.
It usually happens in areas that are smaller first
like your fingers or your toes.
And it's like a burn.
You may be surprised to learn frostbite
can happen in as little as five minutes
if the skin is left exposed to cold temperatures.
So take this seriously.
All right, what does it look like?
At first the skin that's not covered might get a little red
or sore and that's called frostnip.
Usually the first sign of worse things to come.
If it progresses, frostbite will go beyond and advance
to muscle and bones below.
Skin might turn yellow or white at first
and feel like pins and needles or burn or itch.
You may even see blisters form.
Ignore all those sides of frostbite
and things could get really dire quickly.
In advanced stages of frostbite,
the skin is very hard to the touch and may even start
to turn a darker shade of blue or black.
Most patient with frostbite at this point
can't even feel their affected body part.
So that is why it is super important to pay attention
and look at the skin as this may be the only indicator
of how bad the process is.
How do you treat it?
Of course, the hospital is always the first line of defense
but when there are no other possible options,
first you've gotta get some are warm and find some way
to warm yourself up.
Do not however, rub the skin.
This will only make things worse
and your skin could fall off
- [Woman] 1, 2, 3.
- So what you should do though, if possible,
soak the affected area such as your hands
or your feet in warm flowing water.
I repeat warm flowing water, not hot scorching water
because you have to slowly warm yourself back up
because you can't feel your skin.
You could actually burn it
without even knowing it.
Warm water or things like warm wash claws or sponges
with water on the affected areas that cannot be submerged
like your nose or your ears for instance.
Do this for at least 30 minutes.
As you thaw out, it's not gonna feel great.
A person may experience painful stinging
or prickling sensations, or even get blisters
as things start to thaw out.
You may want to introduce some pain medications
if you need it for nerve pain as this happens.
Some studies out there suggest that aspirin
may even help restore blood flow to the body parts
with severe frost within 23 hours of rewarming.
In extreme frostbite scenarios where the blood
flow won't come back and the skin is necrotic or dead,
one may need surgery to remove that area.
That way it doesn't get infected
and cause more damage to the tissue around it.
Obviously there are many lifesaving scenarios
that we could go over.
If you wanna hear about other lifesaving medical hacks,
click on this playlist right over here.
Or on the other hand, if you wanna laugh,
click on this playlist and make sure you subscribe
if you haven't already done so.
Thank you so much for watching and stay healthy my friends.
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