A cast, which keeps a bone from moving so it can heal, is essentially a big bandage that has two layers — a soft cotton layer that rests against the skin and a hard outer layer that prevents the broken bone from moving.
These days, casts are made of either:
First, several layers of soft cotton are wrapped around the injured area. Next, the plaster or fiberglass outer layer is soaked in water. The doctor wraps the plaster or fiberglass around the soft first layer. The outer layer is wet but will dry to a hard, protective covering. Doctors sometimes make tiny cuts in the sides of a cast to allow room for swelling.
Absolutely not! A wet cast may not hold the bone in place because the cast could start to dissolve in the water and could irritate the skin underneath it, possibly leading to infection. So your child shouldn’t swim and should use a plastic bag or special sleeve (available online or sometimes at pharmacies) to protect the cast from water. And instead of a shower, your child may need to take a sponge bath.
Although the fiberglass itself is waterproof, the padding inside a fiberglass cast is not. So it’s still important to try to keep a fiberglass cast from getting wet. If this is a problem, talk to the doctor about getting a waterproof liner. Fiberglass casts with waterproof liners let kids continue bathing or even go swimming during the healing process. Although the liner allows for evaporation of water and sweat, it’s still fragile. Also, only certain types of breaks can be treated with this type of cast. Your doctor will determine if the fracture may be safely treated with a waterproof cast.
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Under normal conditions, we all lose some body water every day in our sweat, tears, urine, and stool. Water also evaporates from our skin and leaves the body as vapor when we breathe. We usually replace this body fluid and the salts it contains with the water and salts in our regular diet.
Sometimes, however, kids lose abnormally large amounts of water and salts through fever (more water evaporates from the body when body temperature is increased), diarrhea, vomiting, or long periods of exercise with excessive sweating. Some illnesses might also prevent them from taking fluids by mouth. If they’re unable to adequately replace the fluid that’s been lost, kids can become dehydrated.
If your child has fever, diarrhea, or vomiting, or is sweating a lot on a hot day or during intense physical activity, you should watch for signs of dehydration, which can include:
The best way to prevent dehydration is to make sure kids get plenty of fluids when they’re sick or physically active — they should consume more fluids than they lose (from vomiting, diarrhea, or sweating).
How you keep a child adequately hydrated can depend on the circumstances. For example, a child with a sore throat may become dehydrated due to difficulty drinking or eating. Easing the pain with acetaminophen or ibuprofen may help, while cold drinks or popsicles can soothe a burning throat while also supplying fluids.
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Concussions;
The term concussion conjures up the image of a child knocked unconscious while playing sports. But concussions — temporary loss of brain function — can happen with any head injury, often without any loss of consciousness. And many head injuries occur off the playing field, in car and bicycle accidents, in fights, and even routine calamities and falls.
Kids who sustain concussions usually can recover within a week, without lasting health problems, by following certain precautions and taking a breather from sports.
But a child with an undiagnosed concussion can be at risk for brain damage and even disability.
If your child does sustain a head injury, even without a loss of consciousness, it’s important to watch for symptoms of a concussion, including:
A child with these symptoms should be taken to the emergency room.
The brain is made of soft tissue and is cushioned by spinal fluid. It is encased in the hard, protective skull. The brain can move around inside the skull and even bang against it. If the brain does bang against the skull — for example, if a child hits his or her head on the sidewalk — the brain can get bruised, blood vessels can be torn, and the nerves inside the brain can be injured. These injuries can lead to a concussion, which is the temporary loss of brain function.
There are three different types, or grades, of concussions. The severity of a concussion determines the length of time needed before a player can safely return to sports activities:
Head injuries that result in concussions can be caused by car, bike, and motorcycle accidents; falls; assaults; and contact sports (football, ice hockey, volleyball, lacrosse, basketball, wrestling, field hockey, rugby, soccer, softball, baseball, etc.).
Kelowna First Aid Courses – Red Cross Courses – Next Date: March 07.2010
Home Safety and a First Aid Kits
A well-stocked first-aid kit, kept within easy reach, is a necessity in every home. Having supplies gathered ahead of time will help you handle an emergency at a moment’s notice. You should keep one first-aid kit in your home and one in each car. Also be sure to bring a first-aid kit on family vacations.
Choose containers for your kits that are roomy, durable, easy to carry, and simple to open. Plastic tackle boxes or containers for storing art supplies are ideal, since they’re lightweight, have handles, and offer a lot of space.
Updated and reviewed by: Steven Dowshen, MD
Date reviewed: September 2007
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Anti Choking Training Vest for learning Abdominal Thrust or Heimlich maneuver, while practicing AHA protocols. Additionally, the red trainer features a Back Blow Pad for practicing ARC and ERC protocols. Complete with 10 foam plugs.
1. Pull the vest on, cinch the waist belt and drop a foam plug into the ‘airway’
2. Place your hands in the correct position, between the navel and ribcage
3. Deliver a quick, upward Abdominal Thrust Maneuver (Heimlich)
4. The Act+Fast trainer can be used standing, sitting, on the ground or even for choking self-rescue by using a counter or chair
Intended for use under the direction of CPR Instructors
Warning: Do not aim foam plug at eyes.
Choose from Standard / Child Care / Emergency First Aid & CPR / AED
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© A.D.A.M.
It is not necessary to have all of the signs for it to be an allergy. If you suspect an allergic reaction and the victim has trouble breathing or dizziness, it is probably anaphylaxis.Call 911 immediately if you suspect anaphylaxis.
Someone having a heart attack may experience any or all of the following:
A heart attack occurs when an artery supplying your heart with blood and oxygen becomes partially or completely blocked. This loss of blood flow injures or destroys part of your heart muscle. A heart attack generally causes chest pain for more than 15 minutes, but it can also have no symptoms at all.
Many people who experience a heart attack have warning symptoms hours, days or weeks in advance. The earliest warning sign of an attack may be ongoing episodes of chest pain that start when you’re physically active, but are relieved by rest.
If you or someone else may be having a heart attack:
A disposable BVM Resuscitator
A bag valve mask (also known as a BVM or Ambu bag) is a hand-held device used to provide positive pressure ventilation to a patient who is not breathing or who is breathing inadequately. The device is a normal part of a resuscitation kit for trained professional, such as ambulance crew. The BVM is frequently used in hospitals, and is an essential part of a crash cart. The device is used extensively in the operating room to ventilate an anaesthetised patient in the minutes before a mechanical ventilator is attached. The device is self-filling with air, although additional oxygen (O2) can be added.
Use of the BVM to ventilate a patient is frequently called “bagging” the patient.[1] Bagging is regularly necessary in medical emergencies when the patient’s breathing is insufficient (respiratory failure) or has ceased completely (respiratory arrest). The BVM resuscitator is used in order to manually provide mechanical ventilation in preference to mouth-to-mouth resuscitation (either direct or through an adjunct such as a pocket mask).
The BVM directs the gas inside it via a one-way valve when compressed by a rescuer; the gas is then delivered through a mask and into the patient’s trachea, bronchus and into thelungs. In order to be effective, a bag valve mask must deliver between 500 and 800 milliliters of air to the patient’s lungs, but if oxygen is provided through the tubing and if the patient’s chest rises with each inhalation (indicating that adequate amounts of air are reaching the lungs), 400 to 600 ml may still be adequate.[1] Squeezing the bag once every 5 seconds for an adult or once every 3 seconds for an infant or child provides an adequate respiratory rate (12 respirations per minute in an adult and 20 per minute in a child or infant).[3]
Professional rescuers are taught to ensure that the mask portion of the BVM is properly sealed around the patient’s face (that is, to ensure proper “mask seal”); otherwise, air escapes from the mask and is not pushed into the lungs. In order to maintain this protocol, some protocols use a method of ventilation involving two rescuers: one rescuer to hold the mask to the patient’s face with both hands and ensure a mask seal, while the other squeezes the bag.[4] However, as most ambulances have only two members of crew, the other crew member is likely to be doing compressions in the case of CPR, or may be performing other skills such as cannulation. In this case, or if no other options are available, the BVM can also be operated by a single rescuer who holds the mask to the patient’s face with one hand, in the anaesthetists grip, and squeezes the bag with the other.
When using a BVM, as with other methods of positive pressure ventilation, there is a risk of over-inflating the lungs. This can lead to pressure damage to the lungs themselves, and can also cause air to enter the stomach, causing gastric distention which can make it more difficult to inflate the lungs and which can cause the patient to vomit. This can be avoided by care on behalf of the rescuer. Alternatively, some models of BVM (usually Paediatric) are fitted with a valve which prevents over inflation, by venting the pressure when a pre-set pressure is reached. Nevertheless, cricoid pressure should be applied whenever possible until the patient is intubated or until ventilations have ceased.
An endotracheal tube (ETT) can be inserted by a trained practitioner and can substitute for the mask portion of the BVM. This provides a more secure fit and is easier to manage during emergency transport, since the ET tube is sealed with an inflatable cuff in the trachea, so that any regurgitation cannot enter the lungs. Such material can severely damage the lung tissue, and in the absence of an ET tube, could choke the patient by obstructing the airway. Inhalation of stomach contents can be fatal; the after effects can cause Mendelson’s syndrome or aspiration pneumonia.
Some rescuers may also choose to use a different form of resuscitation adjunt, such as an oropharyngeal airway or Laryngeal mask airway, which would be inserted and then used with the BVM.
In a hospital, long-term mechanical ventilation is provided by using more complex devices such as an intensive care ventilator, rather than by a BVM, which requires at least one person to operate it constantly.
A flow-restricted, oxygen-powered ventilation device (FROPVD) is similar to a BVM in that oxygen is pushed through a mask into the patient’s lungs, but unlike a BVM, in the FROPVD the pressure needed to push air into the patient’s lungs is generated by oxygen via a pressure regulator from a cylinder rather than by squeezing a bag.
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Shock is a life-threatening condition. Immediate medical care can make the difference between life and death.
Signs of shock (most of which will be present) include:
Also, a person in shock usually has an abnormal increase in heart rate and an abnormal decrease in blood pressure.
Shock may occur in response to a sudden illness or injury. When the body loses too much blood or fluids, the circulatory system cannot get enough blood to the vital organs, and shock results.
Shock is a life-threatening condition. Immediate medical care is required any time shock is suspected.
Next Kelowna First Aid Course December 13.09 or January 10.2010 ( Standard / Emergency / Child Care / CPR )
Next Kamloops First Aid Course January 09.2010 ( Standard / Emergency / Child Care / CPR )
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Red Cross - Kelowna First Aid Course
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