The Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Red Cross Society, Captain Adabuga, has disclosed that 10% of accident-related deaths are caused by people who try to help accident victims.
According to him, the way and manner in which first respondents handle accident victims kills them even before they arrive at the hospital.
“The people who reach the accident scene first and try to help the victims can either aid your survival or kill you thinking they are saving you out of ignorance”, he stated in Twi.
Underscoring the need to be knowledgeable in first aid giving, Captain Adebuga stressed that doctors usually pronounce persons dead on arrival due to ignorance of how to assist people when they collapse, or get injured in a car crash.
In defining First Aid, he said it is not the red kit found in cars but a set of skills one uses to help people who are injured and in dire situations such as a car crash, burns, fainting or swallowing of a coin.
Captain Adabuga re-echoed that knowledge of first aid helps first respondents [persons who reach accident scenes first] to help victims with whatever elements they find within the surroundings be it a piece of cloth, belt, wood or even medicinal leaves.
Speaking further, he declared that when someone collapses and you try conveying the person to the hospital, it is wrong to roll up all the glasses as it suffocates the person.
“It is equally relevant to lift the person’s head up and backwards so he can easily get access to oxygen”.
When someone faints, it is not appropriate to pour water on them or attempt giving them food as is done in the home. What they need is air.
He explained that though hunger can cause someone to faint but that doesn’t warrant feeding the person until they regain consciousness.
He made this observation in Twi on the Anopa Bofoↄ morning show hosted by Kofi Adoma Nwanwani.
On his part, Kelvin Yeboah, a First Aid trainer of the Red Cross Society, added that “persons who faint shouldn’t be fed because their nerves are weak and any attempt to give them food would cause choking”.
Again he explained that pouring water on a fainted person would instantly reduce their temperature and cause death.
Fainting, he said, “is the temporary loss of consciousness due to lack of oxygenated blood to the brain” and that explains why we loosen tight things on such persons, placing them in an upright position for easy access to air.
Captain Adabuga argued that First Aid is very important for everyone; whether children or adults. Wherever people are, be it home, school, first aid should be of paramount relevance.
In his view, ‘knowledge in first aid’ must be a prerequisite during employment.
