1.03 Responding to Emergencies and Chain of Survival

A collection of vocabulary-style flashcards based on the Responding to Emergencies First Aid lecture, covering the chain of survival, legal responsibilities, initial assessment steps, and specific emergency conditions.

Early Recognition and Response Benefits

Saves lives, helps shorten recovery time, helps prevent long term disabilities, allow you to provide for the victim’s comfort and helps to prevent the situation from worsening.

Initial assessment

To detect life threats which must be dealt with first.

Chain of survival

The links including Early access, Early basic life support, and early defibrillation.

Good Samaritan Law

Law that offers legal protection to people who give reasonable assistance to those who are injured, ill, in danger, or incapacitated.

HIPAA

Federal law requires the creation of the national standard to protest sensitive patient health information for being disclosed without patients consent.

CAB

The acronym for C-circulation, A-airway, and B-breathing (formerly "ABC").

Early access

The link in the chain of survival defined by recognizing cardiac arrest and activating EMS.

Duty to Act

The legal responsibility to provide emergency care held by EMTs, firefighters and other highly trained individuals.

Activate EMS

The next course of action after a layperson or untrained individual has recognized that an emergency exists.

Early advance care

The link in the chain of survival where treatment is provided by a trained individual such as an EMT; this role bridges the gap between the layperson and paramedics.

Consents

The different types include implied, expressed, and informed.

Scene Safety

Checking the scene prior to providing care to assure the safety of yourself and the victim.

Unresponsiveness Protocol

Check that the scene is safe, access the person, and if they are unresponsive, activate EMS.

Unconscious Determination

The best way is to tap and shout.

911 Activation timing

Activate 911 after you determine unresponsiveness and do not hang up until they tell you to.

Hand washing duration

$$20\,seconds$$

Common Emergencies

Burns, breathing emergencies, fainting, hemorrhage, poisoning, and seizures.

Rule of nines

A tool to assess the total body percentage in burn patients and guides treatment decisions.

Heimlich maneuver

A first-aid procedure for dislodging an obstruction from a child or adult’s windpipe in which a sudden strong pressure is applied on the abdomen between the navel and the rib cage.

Childhood drowning location

For children under $1\,year\,old$, most drownings occur in the bathtub.

Anaphylaxis treatment

Epi-Pen

Standard precautions

Precautions taken because all bodily fluids should be treated as if they are contaminated.

Shock signs and symptoms

Low blood pressure and fast heart rate.

Heat exhaustion signs and symptoms

Pale, faint, increase heart rate, and dizzy.

Bleeding Control Steps

Apply pressure with gauze, check then apply more gauze and pressure if still bleeding, then wrap to stop bleeding.

Anaphylaxis

A severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction that can occur within seconds or minutes of exposure to an allergen (i.e. peanuts or bee stings).

Carotid pulse

Pulse site location in the mid neck, used to evaluate unresponsive adult and child patients by placing two fingertips over the carotid artery.

Asphyxia

Condition in which the body may lose consciousness due to inadequate amounts of oxygen.

Emergency

A serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action.

Hemorrhage

Heavy discharge of blood from the blood vessels.

Hives

Pale red bumps that appear on the skin as a result of an allergen exposure.

Hypothermia

A medical emergency that occurs when your body loses heat faster than it can produce heat, causing a dangerously low body temperature.

Seizure

Uncontrolled electrical activity in the brain, which may produce a physical convulsion, minor physical signs, thought disturbances, or a combination of symptoms.

Pallor

Unusually pale appearance of the skin most noticeably in the facial region.

Radial pulse

Pulse felt by placing fingertips over the radial artery along the thumb side of the wrist.

Level of consciousness

A measurement of a person’s arousability and responsiveness to a stimulus.

Tourniquet

A device for stopping the flow of blood through a vein or artery, typically by compressing a limb with a cord-like tight bandage.

Vertigo

Sensation of dizziness.

Wheezing

Difficulty breathing characterized by a high-pitched whistle sound noted during each exhale.