The Plattsburg Manual Part 47

You will observe that in no case is the right hand or the left hand specified. The officer may either face the company or have his back toward it.

CHAPTER VII

FIRST AID TO THE INJURED

In the army, as in civilian life, you are very often your brother's keeper, as well as your own. Doctors cannot accompany a scout, a patrol, or the firing line. They are seldom present when a man falls overboard.

When a soldier on the firing line is wounded, he may remain for several hours where he falls. He, or his comrade, bandages the wound. Suppose you are wounded, bitten by a snake, etc., what would you do? You may have to give a practical answer to these questions at some time during your life.

This chapter tells you what to do and what not to do in case of the most frequent disabling accidents that may befall a soldier or a civilian.

Ask your mother, father, older brothers, and sisters to read it. Part of it is for them.

FIRST-AID PACKET

Each soldier carries on his belt a first-aid packet. This packet contains two perfectly pure bandages and a couple of safety pins. It should be air tight. Examine yours every week and if the seal is defective, ask your captain for a new packet.

CAUTIONS

1. Act quickly but quietly. Be calm and quiet. Don't lose your head.

2. Make the injured party sit or lie down.

3. See the injury clearly before treating it. Send for a doctor if the wound is serious.

4. Do not remove more clothing than is necessary to examine the injury.

Always rip, or, if you cannot rip, cut the clothes from the injured part. Don't pull the clothes off.

5. Give alcoholic stimulants cautiously and slowly, and only when the patient feels weak or drowsy. Hot coffee or tea will often suffice when obtainable.

6. Keep from the patient all persons not actually needed to a.s.sist you.

7. Do not touch a wound with your fingers. If the wound is dirty, remove the dirt as well as possible, with the first-aid bandage.

8. Don't pour into the wound any water from your canteen for the purpose of washing it out or washing the blood from around the wound.

Water often contains germs and the skin around the wound may be dirty.

If water is poured into the wound it carries or washes into the same these germs and dirt, and the wound will become infected.

9. Heat and moisture increases the activity of the germ of infection.

Therefore keep the wound cool and dry.

10. If the blood is scarlet in color and appears in spurts, send at once for a doctor and then take the necessary measures (apply a tourniquet) to stop the flow of blood.

11. If the patient loses consciousness, it will probably be because insufficient blood is reaching the brain. Lower your patient's head and give all your attention to stopping the bleeding.

BULLET WOUND

If you receive a bullet wound, don't get excited or lose your head. A bullet wound in the muscle or soft parts of the body causes little pain and, if properly dressed, heals in about two to three weeks. Protect the openings where the bullet entered and came out with the bandages found in the first-aid packet. Don't touch the wound with your fingers.

Remove sufficient clothing to see the wounds. Then, and not before, open the first-aid packet and carefully unfold (open) the compress (pad found in the middle of each bandage) and place it over the wound and wrap the ends of the bandage fairly tight around the limb and fasten with the safety pin. If one compress is not large enough to cover the entire wound, use the second bandage. This bandaging will stop ordinary bleeding. Such a dressing may be all that is needed for several days. It is better to leave a wound undressed than to dress it carelessly or ignorantly, so that the dressing must be removed.

STOPPING BLEEDING

If the blood is dark blue and the stream is continuous, a vein has been punctured which, in itself, is not ordinarily dangerous. The bandaging of such a wound will usually stop the flow of blood. Bandage firmly.

Remember all wounds bleed a little, but that, as a rule, this bleeding will stop in a few minutes if the patient remains quiet.

If the blood is bright red and appears in spurts, an artery has been punctured, and the flow of blood must be stopped or the patient will bleed to death. To do this, apply a pressure to the artery at some point between the wound and the heart. Press the artery against the bone. This can usually be done for a short time with the fingers. However it will usually he necessary to use an improvised tourniquet. Tie the bandage of the first-aid packet around the limb so that the compress (pad) will press the artery against the bone. Slip under the compress and over the artery a small stone. Pa.s.s a stick under the bandage and turn the stick around slowly until the slack is taken up and the bleeding stops. Then tie the stick as shown in the ill.u.s.tration.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

After the tourniquet has been in place for an hour, loosen it and if no blood flows allow it to remain loose. If it again bleeds tighten it quickly and loosen again at the end of an hour.

The following ill.u.s.trations, show the usual places where tourniquets are applied or where pressure can be applied to the arteries with the thumb:

[Ill.u.s.tration: WOUND IN SHOULDER]

[Ill.u.s.tration: WOUND IN ARM]

[Ill.u.s.tration: WOUND IN HEAD]

[Ill.u.s.tration: WOUND IN LEG]

BROKEN BONE (FRACTURE)

The next injury you must know is a broken bone. You will usually know when an arm or leg is broken by the way the arm or leg is held, for the wounded man loses control over the limb. Suppose your comrade breaks his leg or arm. What would you do? Straighten the limb gently, pulling upon the end of it quietly and firmly so that the two ends of the broken bone will not overlap. Next, retain the limb in its straightened position by such splints and other material as the boot of a carbine, a piece of board, a piece of tin gutter. Pad the material you use. Tie it to the broken limb as shown in the following ill.u.s.trations. Never place a bandage over the fracture. See Ill.u.s.tration.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BROKEN ARM]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BROKEN LEG]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BROKEN LEG]