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Year 5 students at Rochedale State
School were privileged to have a visit from Wayne Larsen, a Red Cross First Aid
Instructor, on Monday, 8 February, 1999. Wayne talked to the children about a variety of
topics including basic First Aid and Bleeding control. The children learnt a lot in their hour and a half talk and
hopefully will remember what they learnt if they ever need to use it!!
Wayne taught the children the five basic steps to
check a patient's response when injured - |
| D |
Danger - Assess the
scene of the accident for any danger to yourself, the patient and any bystanders.
The patient should be moved as little as possible. |
| R |
Response - To check
for a response from the patient, approach cautiously, tap on the foot first if not sure of
the patient, then gently shake and talk to them to try and obtain a response. |
| A |
Airways - Check and
clear the patients airway by removing any foreign matter from their mouth. |
| B |
Breathing - Check if
the patient is breathing by leaning over the patient so that your ear and cheek is near
their nose and mouth, look in a direction along the centre line of their body and place
your hand at the bottom of the ribs. |
| C |
Circulation - Check
if the patient has a pulse by placing three fingers on their throat to the side of their
wind pipe, push your fingers slightly inwards towards the back of the neck. |
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| Wayne shows the
children the five basic steps. |
The children find
their carotid artery to check their pulse. |
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| After our talk in
the class room, we went to the Assembly Hall for some practical experience. |
Wayne showed the
children how to put a patient into the recovery position. |
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| With the patient
lying on their back, one arm is placed on the chest, with the other out straight to the
side. Then the knee is raised. |
The patient is
gently rolled onto the side, the mouth checked for obstructions, and the head is tilted
back. |
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| Then the kids had a
turn at placing each other in the recovery position. |
Once in position,
they checked the chest for breathing. |
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| Then they were shown
how to check the carotid artery for a pulse. |
"Well, I think
I got that right!!" |
After the children had learnt about basic First
Aid, Wayne went on to teach the children how to control bleeding. They learnt some very
important facts about the amount of blood on the human body -
| An adult's body holds
around 6 litres of blood and can lose 2 to 3 litres before their life is in danger. A child up to 8 years of age has only 2.5
litres of blood and a baby only a very small 750 millilitres!!! |
They also learnt that there are two types of
bleeding -
Arterial bleeding (from an artery) which is bright red and spurts. (If a major
artery was severed, it could spurt up to 4 metres and you could die in around 2
minutes!!!)
Venous bleeding (from a vein) which is a darker red colour and oozes out.
The children also learnt an acronym for controlling bleeding:
| D |
Direct pressure -
apply pressure directly to the wound. Use a pad of bandages or a clean cloth e.g. your
shirt, then bandage. |
| E |
Elevation - Raise
the injured part when possible, e.g. place the patient's arm on their shoulder. |
| R |
Rest - The patient
should move around as little as possible to limit the blood flow. |
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| Wayne placed a pad
on one of the children's arms. |
Then it was bandaged
into place to control the bleeding. |
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| Then the arm was
elevated to help slow the bleeding and the patient instructed to rest. |
Finally it was back
to the class room for some last questions. Thanks a lot Wayne for the great talk!! |
Click here
for the second First Aid Talk on Expired Air Resuscitation.
Click here for the third First Aid Talk on Bandaging.
Click here for the fourth First Aid Talk on Poisons
and Bites.
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