152 Fun Facts About First Aid

Friedrich von Esmarch, who coined 'first aid' in 1870, was a military surgeon in which country's army?

Prussia. Friedrich von Esmarch served as a Prussian army surgeon in the wars of 1864, 1866 and 1870–71, and designed the triangular bandage that became a staple of first aid kits.

The 1877 St John Ambulance Association taught first aid in railway centres and which other workplaces?

Mining districts. The St John Ambulance Association, founded in 1877, ran its early first aid classes in railway centres and coal-mining districts, where accidents were common and doctors were far away.

The internationally accepted first aid symbol is a white cross on a background of which colour?

Green. The red cross on white is a protected emblem reserved for military and humanitarian medical services, so first aid kits and signs use a white cross on a green background, the international colour for safe-condition signs.

Napoleon's surgeon Larrey created an ambulance corps known by what French name?

Ambulances volantes, 'flying ambulances': light, sprung horse-drawn carriages Larrey introduced in 1792–93 to collect the wounded during the fighting rather than after it.

What chest compression rate per minute did the 2015 adult CPR guidelines set?

100–120 a minute, and faster is not better: pushing too quickly stops the chest recoiling fully, so the heart never refills between compressions.

How deep should chest compressions be pushed on an adult?

5–6 cm, about 2 to 2.4 inches: the 2015 guidelines set a ceiling of 6 cm because deeper compressions caused more injuries, but rescuers far more often press too shallow than too deep.

What compression-to-breath ratio do guidelines recommend for a single rescuer giving adult CPR?

30:2, thirty compressions then two breaths, the ratio adopted in 2005 to cut interruptions in blood flow; lay rescuers may also use it for children, while trained teams use 15:2 for a child.

For untrained bystanders helping an adult in cardiac arrest, which form of CPR do guidelines recommend?

Compression-only (hands-only) CPR works because a collapsed adult's blood still holds oxygen for several minutes, so keeping it moving matters more than topping it up.

In 2010, resuscitation guidelines changed the opening steps for all but newborns from ABC to what?

CAB: Compressions, Airway, Breathing. The 2010 AHA guidelines put compressions first to cut the delay before blood started moving; newborns kept ABC because their arrests are usually caused by airway problems.

Which Bee Gees song is famously used as a tempo guide for hands-only CPR?

Stayin' Alive runs at about 103 beats per minute, inside the 100–120 compression range, which is why the American Heart Association adopted it for its hands-only CPR campaigns.

Which heart rhythm will an AED refuse to shock, despite what television dramas suggest?

A flatline heart has no electrical chaos to reset, so it is treated with compressions and drugs rather than electricity.

What does a defibrillator shock do to the heart's electrical activity?

Stops it momentarily. A shock depolarises every heart cell at once, producing a brief standstill that lets the sinoatrial node, the natural pacemaker, restart an organised rhythm; it does not jump-start a stopped heart.

The portable external defibrillator was invented by cardiologist Frank Pantridge in which city?

Belfast. Pantridge built his first portable defibrillator at the Royal Victoria Hospital in 1965; it ran off car batteries, weighed about 70 kg and rode in an ambulance, creating the mobile coronary care unit.

How old was the patient in Claude Beck's first successful human defibrillation in 1947?

14. Beck's patient was a 14-year-old boy on the table in Cleveland in 1947 for a funnel-chest operation; with the chest already open, Beck applied the paddles directly to the heart.

The first-aid recovery position is meant for a casualty who is unconscious but still doing what?

Breathing. The recovery position is for an unconscious casualty who is breathing normally: lying on the side keeps the tongue off the airway and lets vomit drain from the mouth instead of into the windpipe.

For a choking adult, guidelines recommend cycles of how many back blows and the same number of abdominal thrusts?

Five. The Resuscitation Council sequence is up to five sharp back blows between the shoulder blades, then up to five abdominal thrusts, repeated until the object clears; if the person can still cough, encourage coughing first.

The universal sign for choking consists of a person who cannot speak placing both hands where?

On their throat. Clutching the throat with both hands is the universal choking sign; it exists because a fully blocked airway makes speaking or calling for help impossible.

For a heavily pregnant choking victim, rescuers should apply thrusts to which part of the body instead of the abdomen?

The same substitution is advised for very obese people, and for babies under one, who get back blows and chest thrusts rather than abdominal pressure.

Which traditional kitchen remedy for burns does medical guidance say is not recommended?

Butter. Fat traps heat in the tissue and has to be scrubbed off later; cool running water for 20 minutes, started within three hours of the burn, is what limits depth and pain, then cover loosely with cling film.

Under the adult rule of nines, each whole leg counts as what share of body surface?

18%. Wallace's rule of nines gives each leg 18% of body surface, each arm and the head 9%, the front and back of the trunk 18% each, and the perineum the last 1%.

Which US sports doctor introduced the RICE protocol in 1978 and later recanted it?

Gabe Mirkin coined RICE in The Sportsmedicine Book (1978) and later wrote that ice and complete rest may delay healing; newer protocols such as PEACE & LOVE drop routine icing altogether.

In the RICE mnemonic for treating a sprain, what does the E stand for?

Elevation. Raising the injured limb above heart level helps fluid drain and limits swelling; elevation also kept its place in later protocols such as PRICE and PEACE & LOVE.

An adrenaline auto-injector for anaphylaxis is designed to be fired into which part of the body?

Thigh. The auto-injector is pressed into the outer mid-thigh, through clothing if needed, because the large muscle absorbs adrenaline quickly; antihistamines are not a substitute for the injection.

'Biphasic anaphylaxis' describes symptoms returning after resolving, within a window of up to how many hours?

Most second waves arrive within eight hours, which is why emergency departments keep patients under observation after a reaction.

Henry Dunant shared the first-ever Nobel Peace Prize in 1901 with which French pacifist?

Frédéric Passy, founder of the first French peace society, shared the inaugural 1901 prize with Dunant, who had set the Red Cross movement in motion in Geneva in 1863.

Earle Dickson invented the Band-Aid in 1920 for his wife, who kept cutting and burning herself doing what?

Cooking. Josephine Dickson kept cutting and burning her fingers in the kitchen, so Earle stuck gauze onto strips of tape; early Band-Aids sold so poorly that Johnson & Johnson gave them free to Boy Scout troops.

The face of CPR mannequin Resusci Anne was modelled on the death mask of a woman said to have drowned in which river?

Seine. The face was cast from the death mask of L'Inconnue de la Seine, an unidentified young woman supposedly pulled from the river in the 1880s; the maker chose a female face so male trainees would not balk at mouth-to-mouth.

Trainees' practice phrase to Resusci Anne is said to have inspired the refrain of which Michael Jackson song?

Smooth Criminal. Its refrain 'Annie, are you OK?' echoes the check-for-response line trainees say to Resusci Anne, the CPR mannequin introduced in Norway in 1960.

The FAST stroke mnemonic (Face, Arm, Speech, Time) was developed in 1998 by clinicians in which country?

Britain. FAST was devised in 1998 by stroke physicians and ambulance staff in Newcastle upon Tyne as a training package for crews; the later BE-FAST version bolts on balance and eyesight checks.

When stopping a nosebleed, which way should the head be tilted?

Forward. Leaning forward lets blood drain out rather than down the throat, where it causes nausea and airway trouble; pinch the soft part of the nose, not the bony bridge, without letting go to check.

Kiesselbach's plexus, source of most anterior nosebleeds, is also known as what?

Little's area. Kiesselbach's plexus, where several arteries meet on the front of the nasal septum, is also called Little's area after James Little, who described it in 1879; posterior bleeds are rarer but harder to control.

'Paradoxical undressing', in which a victim strips off their clothing, is a symptom of severe what?

Hypothermia. As severe hypothermia sets in, the muscles that constrict surface blood vessels fail, so skin suddenly feels hot and victims strip; the final stage, 'terminal burrowing', drives them into small enclosed spaces.

Which is regarded as the gold-standard cooling method for exertional heat stroke?

Cold-water immersion. Plunging the body in ice water cools about 0.2 °C a minute, fastest of any method, and survival is near-universal if the core drops below 40 °C within 30 minutes; fever drugs do nothing for heat stroke.

Which movie-style snakebite treatment does modern guidance say does not work and may harm?

Sucking out the venom. Mouth suction removes almost no venom and adds bacteria to the wound; cutting and tourniquets are also out, and the advice is to keep the limb still and get to hospital.

The pressure-immobilisation bandage for snakebite is recommended chiefly in which country?

Australia. Pressure immobilisation, developed by Struan Sutherland in 1979, suits Australia's neurotoxic elapids, whose venom travels through the lymph; wrapping a viper bite tightly can worsen local tissue damage.

Recommended tick removal is to grasp it with fine tweezers as close to the skin as possible and pull how?

Without rotating. Pull upward with steady, even pressure so the mouthparts do not snap off in the skin; chemicals, heat and twisting are ineffective, and in Australia the advice is to freeze the tick in place instead.

Per the CDC, a tick must usually be attached how many hours before transmitting Lyme disease?

36. The CDC says the tick must in most cases be attached for 36 to 48 hours before Lyme bacteria pass over, which is why a same-day tick check after a walk matters more than any removal gadget.

Good Samaritan laws take their name from a parable told in which Gospel?

Luke. The parable appears only in Luke 10:25–37, where a Samaritan stops to tend a beaten traveller; France goes further than protection, obliging anyone to help a person in danger or at least call for help.

The world's first emergency telephone number, 999, was introduced in 1937 in which city?

London. The 999 service began on 30 June 1937 covering central London; within days a Hampstead resident used it to report a burglar, Thomas Duffy, who was caught in the act.

A deadly 1935 fire at which Marylebone address led to the creation of the 999 service?

Wimpole Street. The November 1935 fire at 14 Wimpole Street killed five women; a neighbour kept waiting by the exchange wrote a furious letter to The Times, prompting the inquiry that produced 999.

The first 911 call in the United States was made in 1968 in Haleyville, a small town in which state?

The local Alabama Telephone Company raced to beat AT&T, whose own first 911 system went live in Huntington, Indiana, days later.

First aid for circulatory shock (no head or back injury) is to lay the person flat and have their legs what?

Raised. Lifting the legs about 30 cm helps blood return to the core; the classic signs of shock are a rapid, weak, thready pulse, cool clammy skin and fast shallow breathing.

How many minutes after eating carbs for low blood sugar does the ADA say to recheck?

15. The ADA's 15-15 rule: take 15 grams of fast carbs, such as half a cup of juice or regular soda, wait 15 minutes and recheck, repeating until blood glucose is back above 70 mg/dL.

If someone with dangerously low blood sugar cannot swallow, which hormone may be injected?

Glucagon. It tells the liver to release stored glucose, the opposite job to insulin; a nasal-powder form, Baqsimi, was approved in 2019 for use without an injection.

Which over-the-counter drug is an appropriate first response to a suspected heart attack?

Aspirin. Chewing a regular adult tablet (about 300 mg) stops platelets clumping onto the clot; women more often report nausea, jaw pain or fatigue than the classic crushing chest pain.

Which word do experts use for real drowning, which rarely looks like it does in films?

Silent is the word experts use: drowning is not necessarily violent or loud; the WHO puts deaths at around 300,000 a year, 92% in low- and middle-income countries.

If a convulsive seizure lasts longer than how many minutes should bystanders call emergency services?

5. A convulsive seizure lasting more than five minutes, or repeated seizures without the person waking between them, is an emergency; meanwhile do not restrain the person, put nothing in their mouth, and turn them on their side afterwards.

Which link was added to the American Heart Association's 'chain of survival' in 2020?

Recovery. The 2020 AHA guidelines added Recovery, covering rehabilitation and support after discharge; the chain metaphor was coined by Mary Newman in a 1989 JEMS article and originally had four links.

A red cross on a first aid kit is generally unlawful; which treaties protect the emblem?

Geneva Conventions. The 1949 Geneva Conventions reserve the red cross for military and humanitarian medical services; Johnson & Johnson is an exception, using the mark since 1887, before the 1905 US law that reserved the emblem and exempted earlier users.

Which early intervention is aimed at people at risk of developing PTSD?

Psychological first aid. Developed by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and endorsed by the WHO in 2011, it offers support and calm in the first hours after a traumatic event; mental health first aid is a distinct programme.

How many Nobel Peace Prizes had the ICRC won by the end of the 20th century?

Three. The ICRC won in 1917 and 1944 for its work in the two World Wars, and shared the 1963 centenary prize with the League of Red Cross Societies.

How many Geneva Conventions of 1949 does the ICRC oversee?

They cover the wounded on land, the wounded at sea, prisoners of war and civilians.

Which 1859 battle's aftermath moved Henry Dunant to found what became the Red Cross?

Solferino. Dunant arrived at Solferino in Lombardy on 24 June 1859 hoping to petition Napoleon III and instead spent days organising care for tens of thousands of wounded, which led him to found the Red Cross.

In which year did Henry Dunant publish A Memory of Solferino?

1862. Dunant printed A Memory of Solferino at his own expense in 1862, three years after the battle, and in February 1863 joined the five-man Geneva committee that became the ICRC.

In which Swiss village did Henry Dunant spend his final years and die in 1910?

Heiden. Dunant settled in 1887 in Heiden, a village in Appenzell Ausserrhoden, living in its hospital from 1892 in poverty and obscurity until a journalist found him in 1895; he died there in October 1910.

Roughly how many soldiers were present at the 1859 battle that inspired the Red Cross, the largest since Leipzig?

About 300,000. Roughly 130,000 Austrians faced some 140,000 French and Piedmontese troops on 24 June 1859, the largest clash in Europe since Leipzig in 1813.

Who founded the American Red Cross in 1881?

Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross in May 1881 after seeing the Red Cross at work in the Franco-Prussian War; she had been a teacher, a Patent Office clerk and a self-taught Civil War nurse.

Which New York town formed the first local chapter of the American Red Cross in 1881?

Dansville. Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C. on 21 May 1881; the first local chapter followed in Dansville, New York, on 22 August 1881, near the sanitarium where she had convalesced.

In what year was Clara Barton forced to resign as American Red Cross president?

1904. After years of criticism, led by Mabel Boardman, that she mixed personal and Red Cross funds, and a congressional inquiry, Barton resigned in May 1904 at the age of 82; she died in 1912.

After the Civil War, which agency did the future founder of the American Red Cross run in Washington?

The Office of Missing Soldiers. From 1865 to 1868 Barton ran the Office of Correspondence with Friends of the Missing Men of the United States Army from her Washington boarding house, tracing some 22,000 missing soldiers.

In what year were the first uniformed St John Ambulance Brigade first-aiders founded?

1887. The uniformed St John Ambulance Brigade was formed in 1887 to provide trained first-aiders at public events, ten years after the teaching Association of 1877 and a year before Queen Victoria's 1888 royal charter.

St John ceased operating in Scotland in 1908 by agreement with which body?

St Andrew's Ambulance Association. Founded in Glasgow in 1882, it became Scotland's own first aid body, and in 1908 St John agreed to withdraw from Scotland and leave the field to it.

According to 2015 AHA guidelines, why may compression-only CPR be worse for children?

Their arrests usually stem from breathing problems. Most paediatric cardiac arrests are asphyxial, so blood oxygen is already low and ventilation matters; adult arrests are mostly cardiac, which is why compressions alone work for them.

What are the gasping breaths that can occur during cardiac arrest, which still call for CPR, called?

Agonal respirations are gasps, not breathing, so CPR is recommended for anyone unresponsive who is not breathing or is breathing abnormally.

Which Austrian anesthesiologist is credited with pioneering CPR?

Peter Safar, born in Vienna in 1924, showed in the late 1950s that mouth-to-mouth ventilation worked and set out the airway-breathing-circulation sequence in his 1957 book ABC of Resuscitation.

Which Norwegian doll maker was persuaded to build the first CPR training mannequins?

Asmund Laerdal, a Stavanger toy and doll maker, was persuaded by anaesthetist Bjørn Lind and Peter Safar to build a lifelike training mannequin; the result, Resusci Anne, went on sale in 1960.

With which physician did the CPR pioneer Safar prove the effectiveness of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation?

James Elam. Elam and Safar showed in 1956–58 experiments on sedated volunteers that exhaled air kept blood oxygen normal; Kouwenhoven, Jude and Knickerbocker meanwhile discovered external chest compressions at Johns Hopkins in 1960.

Which member of the 1960 Johns Hopkins chest-compression team was the surgeon?

James Jude. Jude was the surgical resident on the Johns Hopkins team whose 1960 JAMA paper described closed-chest cardiac massage; Kouwenhoven was a professor of electrical engineering and Knickerbocker his graduate student.

In what year did Henry Heimlich first describe his abdominal-thrust maneuver?

1974. Heimlich published the abdominal-thrust technique in the journal Emergency Medicine in June 1974, after testing it on anaesthetised dogs with a tube lodged in the airway.

Which nickname is given to the Heimlich chest drain that lets blood and air out of the chest cavity?

The flutter valve. Heimlich's 1960s one-way valve, a rubber sleeve inside a tube, lets air and blood escape a chest drain without re-entering, and was widely used on wounded soldiers in Vietnam.

Where in the body does a rescuer apply pressure during a Heimlich maneuver?

The bottom of the diaphragm. The fist goes on the upper abdomen just above the navel and thrusts inward and upward under the diaphragm, squeezing the lungs so the trapped air pops the object out.

Under what name was the first automatic public-use defibrillator launched in the late 1970s?

Heart-Aid. Built by Arch Diack's Cardiac Resuscitation Company in Portland, Oregon, around 1978, it analysed the rhythm itself and delivered the shock through a chest pad and a tongue electrode placed in the mouth.

Where are the two AED pads placed on an adult?

Upper right chest and lower left side. One pad goes below the right collarbone and the other on the lower left ribs, so the current crosses the heart; for small children the pads may go front and back.

Which muscle in the outer thigh is the target of an epinephrine autoinjector?

Vastus lateralis, the big muscle on the outer thigh, absorbs adrenaline fast and is safely away from the femoral nerve and artery; the dose may be repeated after 5 to 15 minutes if there is no response.

Who invented the EpiPen in the mid-1970s at Survival Technology in Bethesda, Maryland?

Sheldon Kaplan designed the EpiPen at Survival Technology in Bethesda in the mid-1970s, adapting the company's military autoinjector; the FDA approved it in 1987.

Which ISO standard defines the white-cross-on-green first aid symbol?

ISO 7010. Its sign E003 is the white cross on a green square marking first aid stations; ISO 3864 sets the colour rules behind it, while US workplace kits follow ANSI/ISEA Z308.1.

A superficial burn that appears red without blisters, like mild sunburn, is classified how?

First-degree burns hurt for about three days and affect only the outermost skin layer; blisters mean the burn has gone deeper.

Why is a third-degree burn often painless?

The injury extends through all skin layers. A third-degree burn destroys the dermis and its nerve endings, so the area is often stiff, leathery and numb, whereas partial-thickness second-degree burns are very painful.

A burn caused by contact with hot liquid is specifically called what?

Scalding is one of the thermal burns, along with hot solids and fire, and most burns are thermal and happen in the home or workplace.

A splint that allows controlled motion is described as what?

Dynamic. A dynamic splint uses springs or elastic bands to allow or assist controlled movement of a joint, whereas a static splint holds it completely still.

Which French surgeon developed a screw device for occluding blood flow in 1718?

Jean Louis Petit. In 1718 Petit presented a screw tourniquet that clamped a pad over the artery and could be loosened by an assistant; before that the tourniquet was a garrotte tightened by twisting a rod.

Which ancient army is credited with using bronze-strap tourniquets to stanch soldiers' bleeding?

Alexander the Great's. Surgeons on Alexander's campaigns in the 330s and 320s BC are credited with the first recorded tourniquets, narrow straps of bronze; the Romans later used them to control bleeding during amputations.

Who advocated in 1785 that each Royal Navy sailor carry a tourniquet into battle?

Sir Gilbert Blane. In 1785 Blane, physician to the fleet, urged that every Royal Navy sailor carry a tourniquet into battle; he later got lemon juice issued across the navy against scurvy in 1795.

Below what core body temperature is a person defined as hypothermic?

35.0 °C. Hypothermia is a core temperature below 35 °C; mild is 32–35 °C, moderate 28–32 °C, and severe below 28 °C, when the heart becomes prone to fatal rhythms.

What happens to shivering as hypothermia progresses from mild to moderate?

It stops. Shivering is the body's heat-making reflex in mild hypothermia; as the core falls below about 32 °C it fails, confusion and clumsiness take over, and severe hypothermia can bring hallucinations and paradoxical undressing.

What is the paling or reddening of skin that often precedes frostbite called?

Frostnip. Frostnip is the mild, reversible first stage, with pale or reddened numb skin but no ice in the tissue; true frostbite damage comes from ice crystals and clots in small vessels after thawing.

Heat stroke is defined by a body temperature above what?

40.0 °C. Heat stroke is a core temperature above 40 °C with central nervous system disturbance such as confusion; sweating is usually present in exertional heat stroke but absent in classic heat stroke.

Which mild heat illness typically hits the calves, thighs or abdomen after heavy sweating?

Heat cramps. These painful, brief muscle spasms follow hours of sweating and usually strike the calves, thighs or abdomen; rest in a cool place and a salty drink settle them, at the mild end of the heat-illness spectrum.

Under what brand name is naloxone, the nasal spray that reverses opioid overdoses, commonly sold?

Narcan. The nasal spray, approved by the FDA in 2015, starts working in about ten minutes; its effect can wear off before the opioid does, so a second dose may be needed.

How long does naloxone block the effects of opioids?

30 to 90 minutes. Naloxone, patented in 1961, wears off in 30 to 90 minutes while many opioids last longer, which is why a second dose and emergency care follow; intravenously it acts within two minutes.

Which Pittsburgh operation, founded in 1967, was the first US paramedic-staffed emergency service?

Freedom House. The Freedom House Ambulance Service, trained by Peter Safar and staffed by Black men from the Hill District, ran from 1967 until the city absorbed it in 1975 and set national paramedic standards.

Before the mid-1960s, US ambulance service was typically provided by police or which business?

Local funeral homes. Hearses were the only vehicles long enough to carry a stretcher, so undertakers ran many ambulances until the 1966 'Accidental Death and Disability' report exposed how little care they gave.

How many points does the Star of Life symbol have?

Its center holds the Rod of Asclepius, an ancient symbol of medicine.

Which organization designed the original Star of Life in 1963?

The AMA's version was red; the NHTSA later changed it to blue.

What color was the AMA's original Star of Life before Leo R. Schwartz made it blue?

Red. The AMA's 1963 original was red; Leo R. Schwartz of the NHTSA recoloured it blue in 1973 and assigned the six points to the stages of emergency care, from detection to transfer to definitive care.

An elevator marked with the Star of Life indicates what?

It is large enough for a stretcher. US building codes put the Star of Life on the lift that can take a 24 by 84 inch ambulance stretcher; medical bracelets also carry the symbol to flag conditions for responders.

What is a non-emergency patient transport vehicle sometimes called?

An ambulette. In the United States an ambulette is a wheelchair- or stretcher-equipped van for non-emergency patient transport, usually without medical staff; whether it counts as an ambulance varies by jurisdiction.

The word 'triage' comes from a French verb meaning what?

To sort or select. Triage comes from the French trier, 'to sort', as in grading coffee beans or wool; Larrey laid the groundwork by treating the wounded by urgency regardless of rank.

When there are more injured people than care providers, the event is called what?

A mass casualty incident. An MCI is declared when casualties outnumber the responders and resources on scene, so triage places those most injured and most helpable first, except in reverse triage.

Which chemical did Joseph Lister introduce as a steriliser at Glasgow Royal Infirmary?

Carbolic acid is modern-day phenol; he used it on instruments, hands and wards.

Who showed in 1847-48 that hand washing before deliveries reduced puerperal fever?

Ignaz Semmelweis. At the Vienna General Hospital in 1847 he made doctors wash their hands in chlorinated lime before deliveries, and maternal deaths on his ward fell from about 18 per cent to under 2; many hospitals ignored him.

How does an antiseptic differ from a disinfectant?

It is applied to living tissue. Antiseptics such as iodine or chlorhexidine are mild enough for skin and wounds, while disinfectants such as bleach destroy microorganisms on non-living surfaces.

Which bees are capable of stinging?

Only females. The sting is a modified ovipositor, so only queens and female workers carry one; male drones cannot sting, and foraging honey bees rarely sting unless stepped on or roughly handled.

What is the pH character of honey bee venom?

Acidic. Bee venom (apitoxin) has a pH of roughly 5, so it is slightly acidic, though the pain comes from melittin rather than acidity; allergic reactions to venom components can be life-threatening.

A concussion is classed as which severity of traumatic brain injury?

Mild. A concussion is a mild traumatic brain injury: a blow or jolt that disturbs brain function without visible structural damage on standard scans; symptoms usually clear within two weeks in adults and four in children.

What is the medical term for fainting?

Syncope, from the Greek for 'cutting short', is a brief loss of consciousness from reduced blood flow to the brain, usually a drop in blood pressure; lying the person flat with legs raised restores it.

Shock caused by sepsis or anaphylaxis, where blood vessels dilate and leak, is which type?

Distributive. In distributive shock the vessels themselves fail, widening and leaking so blood pools away from the organs; sepsis, anaphylaxis and spinal cord injury are the classic causes.

Shock caused by heavy bleeding, diarrhea or vomiting is which type?

Hypovolemic. Losing blood or body fluid shrinks the circulating volume, so the heart has too little to pump; heart attacks cause cardiogenic shock, and a clot or tension pneumothorax causes obstructive shock.

On the Glasgow Coma Scale, at or below what score is a casualty typically placed in the recovery position?

An unconscious pregnant woman is turned on her left side to relieve pressure on the vena cava.

How should an unconscious pregnant woman be positioned to relieve pressure on the vena cava?

On her left side. Lying on the left moves the heavy uterus off the inferior vena cava, which runs to the right of the spine, so blood can return to the heart.

What is the range of possible scores on the Glasgow Coma Scale?

3 to 15. The scale adds eye (1–4), verbal (1–5) and motor (1–6) responses, so the floor is 3 and a fully alert person scores 15.

In wound care, what does a bandage do when used together with a dressing?

Holds it in place. The dressing is the sterile pad that touches the wound; the bandage is the strip or roll that secures it, and elastic bandages are used alone to compress sprains.

A sprain damages which tissue within a joint?

Ligaments. A sprain stretches or tears the ligaments that join bone to bone across a joint; the equivalent injury to a muscle or tendon is a strain.

Which joints most commonly suffer sprains?

Ankle, knee and wrist. Ankle sprains alone account for the bulk of sports sprains, usually from rolling the foot inward; third-degree sprains involve complete ligament tears.

What is the medical term for a nosebleed?

Epistaxis, from the Greek for 'dripping', is the medical term for a nosebleed; about 60 per cent of people have one at some point, most from the vessel-rich front of the septum.

At least how many minutes should a nosebleed be pinched before checking whether it has stopped?

10. Pinch the soft lower part of the nose for at least 10 minutes, leaning forward and breathing through the mouth, before checking; letting go early dislodges the clot, and bleeding past 30 minutes needs medical help.

For a drowning victim, resuscitation guidelines say CPR should begin with what?

Rescue breaths. Drowning is an asphyxial arrest, so the ERC tells rescuers to give five initial rescue breaths before compressions; pressing the abdomen to get the water out only delays care and risks vomiting.

Which home emetic for poisoning did the American Academy of Pediatrics stop recommending in 2003?

Syrup of ipecac. Parents were once told to keep ipecac to make a poisoned child vomit, but in 2003 the American Academy of Pediatrics withdrew the advice because vomiting removes little poison and can cause harm.

Which emergency number is used across Europe and can also be dialed in parts of Asia, Africa and South America?

112. The EU adopted 112 as its common emergency number in 1991, and many networks outside Europe route it too; the UK's 999, introduced in 1937, is the world's oldest emergency call service.

Which foods are especially dangerous for choking because they mould to the shape of the throat?

Bananas, marshmallows and gummy candies can adapt their shape to the pharynx; choking is the fourth leading cause of unintentional injury death in the US.

Rabies was historically called hydrophobia because victims did what?

Painful throat spasms on swallowing cause the reaction; once symptoms appear the disease is almost always fatal.

By what name, describing its best-known symptom, is tetanus also known?

Lockjaw. Tetanus toxin makes muscles spasm, usually starting with the jaw muscles, hence the old name; the bacterium lives in soil, dust and manure and enters through cuts or punctures.

Roughly what share of tetanus cases prove fatal?

About 10%. Around one in ten cases is fatal even with modern care, and far more without it; symptoms begin 3 to 21 days after infection and spasms can be strong enough to fracture bones.

What is the genericized British trademark for an adhesive bandage, equivalent to Band-Aid?

Elastoplast. Launched by Smith & Nephew in 1928, Elastoplast became the generic British word for a sticking plaster, much as Band-Aid did in America; in everyday British English it is simply a plaster.

A triangular bandage folded into a long strip is called what?

A cravat bandage. Folding a triangular bandage from its point to its base into a long strip makes a cravat, used to tie splints, hold dressings in place or bind a sling.

In the chain of survival, which link comes immediately after early CPR?

Early defibrillation. Every version of the chain runs recognition and call, early CPR, early defibrillation, then advanced care; bystanders can perform the first three links, which is why public AEDs matter.

What share of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients die before reaching hospital?

70 to 90 percent never make it, which is why the first links in the chain of survival, recognition and CPR, belong to bystanders.

In what year was the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation formed?

1992. ILCOR was founded in 1992 to bring together the world's resuscitation councils, and its first joint international guidelines appeared in 2000.

A loss of what percentage of total body water is typically fatal?

15 to 25 percent. Death follows a loss of roughly 15 to 25 per cent of total body water; most people tolerate a 3 to 4 per cent loss, and over 10 per cent brings physical and mental deterioration.

Which serious heart rhythm can a large electric shock trigger?

Ventricular fibrillation. A large current passing through the chest can throw the heart into ventricular fibrillation, the chaotic rhythm a defibrillator is designed to stop; muscle spasms from shock can also dislocate joints or break bones.

How are the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning often described?

Flu-like. Headache, nausea, dizziness and weakness mimic flu, but without a fever and often affecting everyone in the house at once; the classic 'cherry red skin' rarely actually occurs.

Which two University of Glasgow doctors developed the Glasgow Coma Scale?

Bryan Jennett and Graham Teasdale published the Glasgow Coma Scale in The Lancet in 1974, after finding that clinicians struggled to agree on levels of unconsciousness; Donald and Brown were Glasgow's ultrasound pioneers.

Sunburn is technically what kind of injury?

A radiation burn. Sunburn is an inflammatory response to DNA damage from ultraviolet radiation, not heat, which is why it can happen on a cool, bright day.

In dermatology, what is a large blister called?

A bulla. A bulla is a fluid-filled blister larger than about 5 mm (some texts say 1 cm); smaller ones are vesicles or blebs, and the word 'blister' comes from Middle Dutch bluyster.

A 'large local reaction' to a sting means swelling greater than what size?

10 centimetres. A large local reaction is swelling wider than 10 cm that peaks over 24 to 48 hours; such reactions follow about 10 per cent of Hymenoptera stings, while systemic reactions are rarer at 1 to 3 per cent.

A healthy person can typically lose what share of total blood volume without serious difficulty?

10 to 15 percent. A healthy adult tolerates losing 10 to 15 per cent of blood volume, a little more than a 450 ml donation takes, without serious trouble; death from blood loss is called exsanguination.

What are the two main types of stroke?

Ischemic strokes come from blocked flow, hemorrhagic from bleeding.

What is a break in which the bone pierces the skin called?

An open or compound fracture carries a high infection risk because the wound connects bone to the outside; a bone broken into several fragments is comminuted.

In the four-stage model of wound healing, what is the first stage?

Hemostasis. Within minutes platelets plug the wound and a fibrin clot forms, stopping the bleeding before inflammation, proliferation and tissue remodeling follow.

Which 1970s TV drama about Los Angeles County paramedics popularised the job across the US?

Emergency!. Running on NBC from 1972 to 1977 and following Squad 51's Gage and DeSoto, it showed millions of viewers what paramedics did at a time when only a handful of US cities had them.

In START triage, which tag colour marks casualties who are dead or beyond help?

Black. START triage sorts casualties into green for the walking, yellow for delayed care, red for immediate care and black for the dead or those whose injuries cannot be survived with the resources at hand.

On what date was the blue Star of Life registered as a certification mark to the NHTSA?

February 1, 1977. The blue Star of Life was registered as a certification mark to the NHTSA on 1 February 1977, after the Department of Health, Education and Welfare had recommended it in October 1973.

Where did Henry Heimlich earn his M.D. in 1943, at age 23?

Weill Cornell. Heimlich took his MD at Cornell University Medical College in New York (renamed Weill Cornell Medical College in 1998) in 1943, then served as a US Navy surgeon in China during World War II.

Which pupil sign is typical of an opioid overdose?

Pinpoint pupils. Opioids constrict the pupils to pinpoints and slow breathing to a few gasps a minute; the triad of pinpoint pupils, unconsciousness and slow breathing is the cue to give naloxone.

Where should a limb tourniquet be placed in relation to the wound?

2–3 inches above it. Place the tourniquet 2 to 3 inches (5 to 7 cm) above the wound, never over a joint, and tighten until the bleeding stops; note the time, since a limb tolerates about two hours.

How many people were present at the May 12, 1881 meeting that organized the American Red Cross?

Fifteen. Fifteen people met at the I Street home of Senator Omar D. Conger on 12 May 1881, and the association was formally organised on 21 May with Clara Barton as president.

Which disaster gave the American Red Cross its first large-scale relief operation under Clara Barton?

The Johnstown Flood. After the South Fork dam burst in May 1889 and killed more than 2,200 people, Barton spent five months in Johnstown running shelters and supplies, the Red Cross's first large-scale disaster relief.

Rewarming frostbitten skin is best done in water of roughly what temperature?

37–39 °C. Frostbitten parts are thawed in water warmed to 37–39 °C, about body temperature, for 15 to 30 minutes; hotter water burns numb skin, and dry heat from a fire is worse.

For how many weeks do tetanus spasms typically continue?

Three to four. The spasms, each lasting minutes and triggered by noise or touch, recur for three to four weeks and full recovery can take months; most patients need sedation and often ventilation.

How long is the usual incubation period for rabies?

One to three months is typical because the virus travels slowly along nerves to the brain, which is why a bite on the face is more urgent than one on the foot.

The first civilian first-aid classes in 1878 were held in a school hall in which London district?

Woolwich. The first public classes were held in a school hall in Woolwich, near the Royal Arsenal and barracks, in January 1878, taught by an army surgeon under the newly formed St John Ambulance Association.

Which British Army surgeon first used the phrase 'first aid for the injured' in English?

Peter Shepherd. Surgeon-Major Shepherd adapted von Esmarch's Prussian training into lectures for British soldiers in the 1870s and coined 'first aid for the injured'; he was killed at Isandlwana in 1879.