First Aid - Bleeding & Control

The commonest outdoor injuries are cuts followed by sprains & strains, bruises and then fractures. Hands & fingers are hurt most often, then feet and toes then legs next. One of 4 injuries reported is caused by hand tools such as axes & knives. These latter are the most immediately serious whenever accompanied by heavy bleeding, for this MUST BE STOPPED AT THE EARLIEST POSSIBLE SECOND. 

HOW TO CONTROL BLEEDING FROM A WOUND

1. Raise the injured part.

2. With a clean thick cloth (or your hand if there is no cloth) press directly on the wound. Keep pressing until the bleeding stops. This may take 15 minutes or sometimes an hour or more. This type of direct pressure will stop the bleeding of nearly all wounds sometimes even when a part of the body has been cut off.

Occasionally direct pressure will not control bleeding, especially when the wound is very large or an arm or leg has been cut off. If this happens, and the person is in danger of bleeding to death, do the following:

• Keep pressing on the wound.
• Keep the wounded part as high as possible.
• Tie the arm or leg as close to the wound as possible between the wound and the body. Tighten by twisting the stick enough to control the bleeding.
• For the tie, use a folded cloth or a wide belt; never use thin rope, string, or wire.

PRECAUTIONS:

• Tie the limb only if bleeding is severe and cannot be controlled by pressing directly on the wound.
• Loosen the tie for a moment every half hour to see if it is still needed and to let the blood circulate. Leaving it too long may damage the arm or leg so much it must be cut off.
• Never use dirt, kerosene, lime, or coffee to stop bleeding.
• If bleeding or injury is severe, raise the feet and lower the head to prevent shock.
• Keep blood from getting into any cuts or sores on your skin.

Even when a severe artery is no larger than the graphite of a pencil, an individual can last no more than a few minutes at most if its bleeding is not stopped. Pressing a clean & preferably sterile dressing over the wound will usually control the bleeding if sufficient pressure is applied. This usually can be done, especially with the assistance if necessary of elastic bandages used as previously described.

If you don't have any then press firmly & strongly against the nearest pressure point. The blood supply to an entire arm can be shut off by pressing just behind the ridge to be felt on the inner side of the armpit beneath the raised arm.

THE LARGE FEMORAL ARTERY OF THE LEG CAN BE CONTROLLED BY: Gripping the leg near the body & drawing the fingers about half way down the inner surface where they will find a slight depression at whose bottom throbs this great arterial trunk. Incidentally the blood vessels of the lower leg can often be closed by pressing under the flexed knee between the 2 major tendons in that area.

If the bleeding still continues dangerously, the next step is to apply a tourniquet to the elevated limb. Any preferably flat material will do for this, but particularly efficacious is a resilient 2" wide rubber strip about 5 feet long.