First Aid
Another thing that the motor camper should not forget is provision for emergencies. He should know how to render first aid in case of injury, how to resuscitate those who have been drowning, how to treat various forms of common poisoning with a knowledge of the antidotes for these poisons. This subject cannot be gone into fully in this book. There are books entirely devoted to the promotion of safety and assistance to the injured when the emergency arises. As for drowning, many people who have been in a condition of suspended animation owing to submersion in the water have been allowed to die who might have been resuscitated had those present known how. And it is not necessary to have appliances, such as a pulmotor, at hand. In fact, the best method of resuscitating the drowned is the prone-pressure method in which no apparatus [[128]]whatever is employed. The old method of rolling the drowned person over a barrel, or the later method of sending for a pulmotor was mistaken. Both have been abandoned by progressive physicians and the Red Cross Life-saving Department.
The motor camper is quite unlikely to have a physician anywhere near by who can be summoned, and so should know what to do in an emergency, particularly when one of the party has apparently been drowned. For that matter, sending for a physician in case of drowning is usually entirely futile, for it is seldom that a physician can be brought until it is too late to succeed with resuscitation. The prone-pressure method, which we are about to describe, has succeeded where animation has been suspended until after more than two hours of effort. There have been many cases where it would most likely have saved life, where life was lost, because, instead of promptly applying this treatment, a physician and pulmotor were sent for and neither could be procured until the lapse of considerable vital time.
The Prone-pressure Method of Resuscitation
1. Lay the patient on his stomach on a flat surface. Draw the arms above the head. Bring the right wrist under the forehead so that it will support the head and turn the head slightly to the left. Be sure that the nose and mouth do not touch the ground. [[129]]
2. Clean the patient’s mouth of mucus, blood, chewing gum or other extraneous matter by a stroke of the finger. The prone position facilitates the removal of liquids from the mouth by causing the tongue to fall forward.
3. Kneel astride the patient, facing his head, and place your hands on his lowest ribs, with your fingers curving close to his body. Be careful to avoid pressure on the pelvis and to keep your hands away from the spine.
4. Lean forward, keeping the arms straight, and put the weight of the upper part of your body on your hands. The pressure should be applied gradually, not in a sudden thrust. The Boy Scout Book suggests saying alternately as the hands go down and back again, “Out Goes the Water,” “In Comes the Air,” exerting and relaxing pressure to suit the words.
5. Keep this up steadily about twelve times a minute. Follow your own regular rate of respiration—count or use a watch. The downward pressure forces the diaphragm up into the chest cavity, decreasing the air space and forcing the water out of the lungs. When the pressure is relaxed the diaphragm goes back into place and the air rushes in.
6. Do not cease your efforts as soon as your patient begins to breathe. Continue until the breathing is quite regular. Then when the patient is able to sit up, stimulants, such as aromatic spirits of ammonia, may be given in spoonful doses. The stimulant should be given in water. After this the [[130]]wet clothing should be removed and the patient put to bed.
If the patient is not revived at the end of an hour do not give up. Keep him warm and continue. Many persons have been resuscitated after two hours and more of uninterrupted effort.
It will be a good plan, if the camping place is near the water and any swimming is to be done, or even bathing only, to practice the prone pressure method as a game until practice makes perfect. With children the method may be dramatized and made very interesting to them.
The prone-pressure method of resuscitation is the best to employ in case of unconsciousness from lightning stroke, other electric shock, or poisoning by the inhalation of gas.