Here is a possible scenario:

Driving down a dark highway, it’s the middle of the night. The roads are slick due to a recent rain, one of those short mists that mix with the oils on the road and make it particularly hazardous. You notice something is amiss when you see brake lights too far to your side. As you approach you realize that a car has slid off the road and hit a tree. You pull off and turn on your hazard lights and call out if anyone needs help. There is no response. As you get closer to the vehicle you realize that a woman is unconscious behind the wheel and you see large amounts of blood on the dash.

In June of this year I was in this very situation on HWY 71 just outside of Bastrop, Texas. I was home from training and came across this scene. I believe that everyone should have some basic level of first aid. Had I not had the training I did there is a greater possibility she would have died.

 

 

**Disclaimer**

This is by no means qualifies you to do anything. This post is merely for education, knowledge and the hopes that you will pursue further training.  If you do something incorrectly you risk further injury to the person or killing them. As an untrained person the best thing you can do for someone is call 911 and explicitly follow their instructions only.
**Disclaimer**

Now with that out of the way – over the next few posts I am going to cover basic first aid.

The first thing you need to do in a situation like this is to assess their level of responsiveness using AVPU. As with all things in the military this is an acronym (side note, everything in the army is in fact an acronym).

A-Alert
V-Verbal
P-Pain
U-Unresponsive

These are the various levels of responsiveness a person can be at. At alert they are awake, conscious and normally letting you know where the pain is. When I came to the vehicle the woman was passed out so therefor not alert. The next stage is verbal; at this point you loudly will call out to and lightly touch the person to see if you can get any response. If they do respond in any way to this they are considered verbal responsive but not alert. Unfortunately the woman in the vehicle was not responsive to my calls. The next step is to test for a response to pain stimulus, for this you either do a sternum rub- rubbing your knuckles against the bony surface of their sternum or using pressure points. To avoid injuring the woman, I opted for a pressure point and she jerked. This was confirmation that she was alive but not for long. Had she not responded to this she would be considered unresponsive.

I had 911 dialed up on my phone and gave them a quick assessment but there was still work to be done to save her life before the ambulance could get there. Next week I will talk about identifying and classifying wounds for treatment and to tell medical personnel what they need to prepare for.