Top 10 First Aid Mistakes

Written by Paul Martin -- August 25th, 2008

Newsweek has asked two experts to identify the 10 most common first aid mistakes, and what should be done instead.

1. Cut finger. It’s surprisingly easy for a person to amputate part of a finger – for instance, while chopping vegetables or using an electric saw.
Don’t try to preserve the loose part by placing it directly on ice.
Do wrap the severed part in damp gauze (saline would be ideal for wetting the cloth), place it in a watertight bag and place the bag on ice. Then be sure to bring the bag and ice to the emergency room. The patient will be going into surgery, so he’s best off with an empty stomach. As for the wound on the hand or body, apply ice to reduce swelling and cover it with a clean, dry cloth.

-via Newsweek

#2-10 are available here at Newsweek.com

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 25th, 2008 at 3:31 pm and is filed under Top 10.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Top 10 First Aid Mistakes”

  1. Rose says:
    September 12, 2008 at 11:02 am

    Hey, Paul! I like your website very much. Regarding “Top 10 First Aid Mistakes” #1 was good: where are 2-10?

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  2. Paul says:
    September 12, 2008 at 2:01 pm

    Thanks, Rose! I much appreciate it! I’ve updated the story so that you can more easily locate numbers 2-10. They’re found at Newsweek.com, just click the link toward the end of the blog entry! :)

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