CHAPTER XXXI.
EMERGENCY TREATMENT IN SUDDEN ACCIDENTS.
If the author reviews his experience of the last twenty years, he recalls to memory innumerable instances in which the lack of a little special knowledge, in cases of sudden accidents, did not only incur useless physical suffering, but cost lives which otherwise might have been saved. Knowledge of this nature is not intuitive, but must be acquired by study. He therefore offers for the guidance of the intelligent reader, common sense advice on the immediate management of accidents which are liable to occur at almost any moment.
If a child falls any considerable distance to the ground, the system receives a shock varying from the slightest functional disturbance to complete insensibility.
In the former case there may probably be only slight pallor of the countenance, the ideas become confused, there is a disposition to yawn and a feeling of nausea. Young children have a disposition to sleep, older ones rub their eyes, stare wildly around and even vomit, but after a short time they resume their accustomed employment: these symptoms illustrate a slight concussion of the brain.
When the injury is more serious all the above signs become aggravated and it may take several hours before the normal condition is restored.
The proper course to pursue in all these accidents is to lay the patient on a sofa or bed, with his head slightly elevated in a darkened chamber free from all noise and confusion and let him fall to sleep. In ordinary cases reaction takes place after a quiet slumber. If however the patient complains of pains in the head and there is irritability of temper, the advice of a competent physician becomes necessary.
(a) Broken bones or fractures are defined to be a destruction of the continuity of one or more of the bones of the body.
Fractures are divided into simple and compound; a simple fracture is one in which the bone alone is broken, and in which the skin or integument over the seat of the fracture remains perfectly intact. A compound fracture is one in which the skin and tissues over the fracture are lacerated or wounded so that the ends of the broken bones protrude or are exposed to view.
In a case of fracture, no matter of what variety, the first object to be accomplished is to carefully remove the patient to a place where he may be in a comfortable position. If the fracture is in the arm or leg it should be comfortably supported on a pillow so as to relieve the injured limb from all strain.