(b) Hiccough—This is usually due to indigestion or overloading of the stomach. Holding the breath for one-half minute will usually cure it, as it holds quiet the diaphragm (the large muscular and fibrous partition between the chest and abdomen), and overcomes its involuntary contractions which are causing the hiccoughs. A scare has the same effect sometimes. If the hiccoughs still continue troublesome after these simple remedies try to cause vomiting by drinking lukewarm water, which will get rid of the offending material causing the hiccough, and relieve the distress.
9. NOSE BLEED
The ordinary nose bleed will soon stop from the normal clotting of the blood and does not require treatment.
(a) Keep head elevated, with patient sitting up if possible. Do not blow the nose, as this will dislodge any clot which may have formed, and the bleeding will begin again. Any tight collar around the neck should be loosened.
(b) If the bleeding seems excessive, apply cloths wrung out of ice water to the back of the neck and over the nose.
(c) If the bleeding still continues and is abundant, pack the nostril with a cotton or gauze plug. Pack tightly (with a blunt end of a pencil if nothing else is at hand) and send for the doctor at once.
Major Injuries and Emergencies
1. (a) DISLOCATIONS; (b) FRACTURES
(a) Dislocations—In a dislocation the head of a bone is pushed or pulled out of its socket. A person may be falling and in trying to save himself catch hold of something in such a way that he feels a sharp, sudden, severe pain, and may even feel the head of the bone slip out at the shoulder or elbow.
Symptoms—1. When you looked at the injured part it does not look like the other side.