METHOD OF BANDAGING BROKEN RIB (Scudder).
Note manner of sticking one end of wide adhesive plaster along backbone; also assistant carrying strip around injured side.
Treatment consists in applying a wide band of surgeon's adhesive plaster, to be obtained at any drug shop. The band is made by overlapping strips four or five inches wide, till a width of one foot is obtained. This is then applied by sticking one end along the back bone and carrying it forward around the injured side of the chest over the breastbone as far as a line below the armpit on the uninjured side of the chest, i. e., three-quarters way about the chest. These four- or five-inch strips of plaster may be cut the right length first and laid together, overlapping about two inches, and put on as a whole, or, what is easier, each strip may be put on separately, beginning at the spine, five inches below the fracture, and continuing to apply the strips, overlapping each other about two inches, until the band is made to extend to about five inches above the point of fracture, all the strips ending in the line of the armpit of the uninjured side. ([Fig. 8].)
If surgeon's plaster cannot be obtained, a strong unbleached cotton or flannel bandage, a foot wide, should be placed all around the chest and fastened as snugly as possible with safety pins, in order to limit the motion of the chest wall. The patient will often be more comfortable sitting up, and should take care not to be exposed to cold or wet for some weeks, as pleurisy or pneumonia may follow. Three weeks are required for firm union to be established in broken ribs.
COLLAR-BONE FRACTURE.
First Aid Rule.—Put patient flat on back, on level bed, with small pillow between his shoulders; place forearm of injured side across chest, and retain it so with bandage about chest and arm.
Fig. 9.