When helping an injured person, the first step is to complete an assessment of the scene and the person. If the person is responsive and breathing, ask for consent to help and quickly scan for life-threatening problems.
Gather information about the situation by:
- Asking the person to describe the problem.
- Looking for medical identification jewelry.
- Visually assessing the person from head to toe.
- Trying to identify the mechanism of injury (e.g. how the person was injured).
Check out the HSI Emergency Care blog for more information about performing a first aid assessment for adults.
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