Approximately 7,000 people drown annually, making drowning the third-leading cause of accidental death in the United States. Drowning is an important topic for first aiders and first responders to know about. Freshwater drownings are...

Carbon Monoxide is a deadly, odorless, gas. In this first aid blog post, we will look closer at carbon monoxide and why it is regarded as the ‘silent killer’. Carbon monoxide is a by-product...

In cases of electrical burns, damage is caused by electricity entering the body and traveling through the tissues. Injury results from the effects of the electricity on the function of the body organs and...

Burns are characterized, based on the depth of tissue damage and skin response, as superficial (first degree), partial thickness (second degree), or full-thickness (third-degree). Superficial burns result in only minor tissue damage to the...

Accidents don’t come knocking at the door. And even the most careful of us can face an accident. As a result, one can be left with a torn ligament, fractured bone, or deep cut...

Neurogenic shock is a life-threatening condition that occurs after a spinal cord injury in which a person doesn’t have a stable temperature, blood pressure, or heart rate. A neurogenic condition is related to a...

A pulse oximeter is a noninvasive photoelectric device that measures the arterial oxygen saturation and pulse rate in the peripheral circulation. It consists of a portable monitor and sensing probe that clips onto the...

Cardiac tamponade is a medical condition in which fluids or blood fill up the fluid sac around a person’s heart. Due to this, the heart’s chambers can’t fill properly, and when the heart doesn’t...

The airway begins at the tip of the nose and the lips and ends at the alveolocapillary membrane, through which gas exchange takes place between the air sacs of the lung (the alveoli) and...

A sling is a device that aids in holding a victim’s injured arm closer to their body and keeps the arm from moving during the healing period. There are certain arm injuries that get...

Head injuries are either open or closed. depending on whether the object responsible for the injury compromised the skull and exposed the brain. Brain injury can also be divided into two components, primary and...

Diabetes is a condition which is caused by an imbalance of sugar (glucose) in the blood. Diabetic emergencies can appear in two forms hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and hyperglycemia (hyperglycemia). What is Hypoglycemia? Hypoglycemia...

A heart attack occurs when a coronary artery is suddenly blocked by a blood clot and heart muscle is damaged due to a lack of oxygen. Also known as a myocardial infarction (MI), a...

A stroke is a brain attack which occurs when brain cells become starved oxygen due to an interruption in blood supplying the brain. A stroke, like a heart attack, requires urgent time-critical medical attention....