First aid

Everyday

• Bandages in many sizes, gauze pads, roll gauze and medical tape
• Antiseptic wipes and antibiotic ointment
• Tweezers, small scissors, nitrile gloves
• Elastic wrap and instant cold packs
• Thermometer

Medicine

• Pain and fever reducers for adults and kids
• Antihistamine for allergic reactions
• Anti-diarrhea medicine and oral rehydration salts
• Hydrocortisone cream
• Any prescriptions, with at least 7 days extra if you can

Serious injuries

• Tourniquet, once you've learned to use it
• Pressure dressing and hemostatic gauze
• SAM splint
• Trauma shears
• Emergency blanket

1. Call 911.
2. Press hard on the wound with gauze or a clean cloth, and keep pressing.
3. If blood soaks through, add more on top. Don't lift the first layer.
4. For life-threatening bleeding from an arm or leg, apply a tourniquet 2 to 3 inches above the wound if you're trained. Note the time.

• Stop the bleeding with pressure.
• Rinse with lots of clean running water. Drinkable water is clean enough.
• Cover with a clean dressing and change it daily or when wet.
• Watch for infection: spreading redness, warmth, swelling, pus, red streaks or fever.
• Get care for deep or gaping cuts, animal bites, puncture wounds, or if your tetanus shot isn't current.

• Cool the burn under cool running water for 20 minutes.
• Remove rings and tight items before swelling starts.
• Cover loosely with a clean, non-stick dressing.
• No ice, butter or oil, and don't pop blisters.

• Sprains: rest, ice wrapped in a cloth for 20 minutes at a time, compression with an elastic wrap, and raise it.
• If you think a bone is broken, splint it in the position you found it. Pad the splint and immobilize the joints above and below.
• Check fingers or toes past the splint for warmth and color.
• Get care for any suspected break, and call 911 if bone pokes through skin or the limb is cold, blue or numb.

If an adult or child over 1 can't cough, speak or breathe:

1. Call 911, or have someone call.
2. Give 5 firm back blows between the shoulder blades.
3. Give 5 abdominal thrusts: fist just above the belly button, quick inward and upward pulls.
4. Repeat until the object comes out or the person becomes unresponsive, then start CPR.

• Mild (itchy rash, sneezing): an antihistamine.
• Severe (swelling of lips, tongue or throat, trouble breathing, faintness): use their epinephrine auto-injector if they have one and call 911.
• After epinephrine, the person still needs the emergency room.

For an adult who isn't breathing normally: call 911, then push hard and fast in the center of the chest, 100 to 120 times a minute, about 2 inches deep. Use an AED as soon as one is available. Hands-only CPR is fine if you haven't been trained in rescue breaths.