I don’t know who said it, but just in case I put today’s story in quotation marks. I was struck, having read a post about the rescue of a family from a burning car in the city of Mykolaiv (in the south of Ukraine). Two men, hearing a child’s cry, without delaying a second, rushed to help. The driver was unconscious, and they saved him too, a minute before the explosion! Honour and praise to these two Human Beings! I was very struck by their act — a heroic deed.
And then I remembered how two years ago I was studying on Norwegian driving courses, and in the practical classes they told us how to behave in an extreme situation, in a road accident and when giving first aid to the injured. The audience was asked whom we would save first — the one who is groaning but conscious, or the one who is “silent.” It turns out we save the one who is “silent,” unconscious.
What surprised me was the absence of a first-aid kit in cars, and of fire extinguishers. And when it came to applying a tourniquet (I still remember this process from my student years), namely: a tourniquet is applied only to the limbs, above the wound, and you must put in a note with the time. In cold weather a tourniquet is applied for one hour, and in summer for no more than two hours. I immediately shared my knowledge with the group.
How surprised I was when the instructor said that they “don’t do it that way,” and that they stop blood with the help of whatever is at hand, which is a stone(!?) And she showed how to apply a pressure bandage with a stone. For myself I decided that in my car there will always be a first-aid kit, water, wipes, and instead of a tourniquet a sturdy kerchief or scarf.
And one more thing: if a car has caught fire, they already do NOT save!!! You have to move to a safe distance… that is the rule.