Medical Emergency Checklist

Tess Pennington
Ready Nutrition
August 2011

When medical emergencies arise, knowing which protocals to follow to care for the victim can help sustain them and even save their life. The following suggestions can help you respond when you are with an individual that is experiencing a medical emergency. This list describes your priorities in an emergency situation.

Follow these steps to care for victims during a medical emergency:

1. Evaluate the situation to protect yourself and others from injury.
2. Be calm and reassuring. Talking to yourself may help keep you calm. It may reassure the individual needing help to hear that you are calm.
3. Do not move the individual unless the individual is in immediate danger or unless you cannot provide assistance without moving the individual.
4. Get help. Call out for someone to call 9-1-1 or, if the individual does not need immediate assistance, make the call yourself.
5. Calmly explain the exact nature of the illness or injury.
6. State the exact location of the emergency.
7. STAY ON THE LINE! The dispatcher will need to ask additional questions.
8. Look, listen, and feel for breathing.
9. Feel for a pulse to determine if the heart is beating.
10. Control bleeding with direct pressure by putting a bandage, cloth, or gloved hand over the spot that is bleeding.
11. Treat for shock. Lay the individual flat.
12. If the individual is unconscious, move him or her into the recovery position.
13. If the situation is a choking emergency, perform the abdominal thrust (Heimlich) maneuver.

Tess Pennington is the author of The Prepper's Cookbook: 300 Recipes to Turn Your Emergency Food into Nutritious, Delicious, Life-Saving Meals. When a catastrophic collapse cripples society, grocery store shelves will empty within days. But if you follow this book's plan for stocking, organizing and maintaining a proper emergency food supply, your family will have plenty to eat for weeks, months or even years. Visit her web site at ReadyNutrition.com.

This information has been made available by Ready Nutrition

Author: Tess Pennington
Author's Web Site: http://www.readynutrition.com
Made Available By: Ready Nutrition
Date: August 11th, 2011

Related Categories: Emergency Checklists, Preparedness