You can not save save…

… And in this semantic game, everyone chooses where to put someone.
One of Ufond’s missions is an honorable and responsible mission to promote civil society. As you know, the most characteristic function of such a society is the search for and implementation of means of socialization, which reduces the alienation of people and focuses them on socially useful causes. And what could be more socially useful than knowledge of saving human life?

The fact is that in early 2019, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (by legislative initiative) registered a draft law "On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine to Improve First Aid." The essence of these changes is, first of all, that from now on "the victim cannot file a lawsuit for improper first aid if it was provided in good faith, with the best of intentions and without expecting possible compensation. " That is, under such guarantee legal conditions, the fear of legal responsibility should be reduced, leveled, and those wishing to provide adequate first aid, on the contrary, should increase many times over. The initiative is good, but it is unknown how many years it will take to implement it.

Each of us knows from childhood that in order to remember the material best, it is necessary to illustrate it - to "integrate theory into everyday life", as the famous physicist Richard Feynman said. And in the case of knowledge directly related to human life, it is better to adhere to the standards of Finnish education - "we do not prepare for exams, we prepare for life." So, we we offer a three-level integration of knowledge - literature, life, expert opinion.

The most successful in the literature, perhaps, will be the example of a vivid monologue by Andrei Buslay in Alexei Dudarev’s play "Threshold":"So it was in… There’s one stop there," Unnamed. " Long live: there is nothing to name the stop! And so, opposite this very stop lived a candidate of medical sciences. The doctor himself, the laureate, and he himself is sick with this disease, like her… Oh, diabetes! Here, once, this very laureate made repairs in his apartment. He put on an old jacket, torn pants, worn shoes… His face was rustic and in this outfit he was a khanyga-khanyga… Well, without changing, he jumped out with his diabetes to the store for something. He reached the stop, and then he was caught - pounded so that he barely got to the bench. He sat down. Then he lay down - and ku-ku! Raised in 7 hours already numb. In 7 hours no one came! It’s my fault, this winner! Do you go to the store? Put on your tie, put on your medal! And yes, not enough, who is lying there? I then went to this very stop, "Nameless". He sat on a bench, where the candidate of medical sciences gave his soul to God. Sitting, so there are buses coming and going. I sit, I count people. I counted 203 people in 1 hour. 203 by 7 ?! It’s scary to think! And yet, they still saw him… I wouldn’t come either. "

We often witness situations when someone (at a public transport stop, in a park, near a shop, in a theater, on the sidewalk…) needs help. And as a rule, we remain only outside witnesses. But, perhaps, it is from our help, from our purposeful and quick actions, that a person could be saved. Of course, by calling an ambulance or calling the police, we will also help the person. But, in the conditions of megacities, rapid response vehicles will need at least 10-15 minutes to get to the scene. Sometimes the victim may not have this time - according to the Ministry of Health, assistance provided in the first 4 minutes increases the chances of survival by a significant 30%.

Unfortunately, Ukrainian news feeds are full of stories when people simply did not receive help from others. In early December last year, in the heart of Kyiv, in a surprisingly crowded city (near one of the metro stations), a tragic incident occurred when these fateful first 4 minutes were lost forever due to the cold indifference of others. The price of this ignorance is the death of a man whose heart stopped suddenly. Perhaps most people did not know about this case, if not for a medical student, Sergei Nagnibedyuk , who 15 minutes later, passing by, desperately rushed in vain to resuscitate an already blue man. Later, the young man will make a video: This will be a kind of blatant manifesto about human inaction and indecision, which lasted a long 10 minutes…

So, is it really so difficult to master the rules and skills of first aid, as well as the various aspects related to this issue, we talk with Roman Babich - instructor of home care and tactical medicine: Roman, please explain what is "home care" help "and why should each of us master its skills?

90% of deaths occur before the arrival of the emergency medical team. Therefore, it all depends on the actions of people around you. What you need to do, how to act, how to call an ambulance to arrive on time, how to properly explain to the emergency dispatcher that you have an emergency - it all includes home care. Home care is everything that happens before the arrival of qualified doctors. First aid is a clear algorithm of action that is easy to use and helps save a person’s life before the arrival of the emergency medical team. It is brought to automatism, to muscular memory, actions of the person which it makes without use of special medical tools. All you need are hands, desire and responsibility.

If a person has witnessed an accident or an accident, what are his actions?

First of all, you need to be confident in your abilities, knowledge and skills, do not panic. If fear prevails over cold reason, it is better to do nothing. The main rule of first aid is not to harm! Secondly, there is a specialized protocol-order based on world standards and practice, approved by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine in 2014 (from 16.06., №398). Therefore, the algorithm of actions should be as follows:

1. Inspect the scene and make sure that the assistance will be safe: to ensure their own safety, as well as the safety of the victim and people around.
2. Assess the condition of the victim (consciousness, breathing, pulse).
3. If necessary, call an emergency (ambulance) team, as well as other emergency services (police, rescue service, gas service, etc.).
4. Assess and stop critical bleeding.
5. Ensure airway patency.
6. If the victim has no signs of life and no critical bleeding (or you have already eliminated it) - start cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
7. Transfer the victim to a stable position (sideways, face to face, arm under head, leg bent at the knee), if there is no suspicion of spinal and pelvic injuries and cardiopulmonary resuscitation was successful.
8. Do not leave the victim and monitor the state of his vital functions until the arrival of emergency services.

How to protect yourself by providing medical care to a stranger?

In order to help a stranger, but at the same time not to harm your own health, you should have 2 things with you - medical gloves and a film-valve. These two things will be a reliable barrier to prevent the rescuer from coming into contact with the victim’s body fluids (saliva, vomit, blood) during mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Provided that the film-valve is quite difficult for the average citizen to find, then "mouth-to-mouth" can not do.

What are the most common myths in providing medical care?

The most popular is the myth of breath testing, when you need to bring a mirror to your mouth. Agree, the mirror is an object that not everyone carries with them. Women - of course: in a handbag you can find everything and more. But men are unlikely to have it in their pockets. Therefore, to check a person’s breathing, you should use a simple technique - hear, see, feel. But before that, the airways must be opened: the unconscious person is relaxed, and the tongue is a muscle that can sink and block the airway in this state. Therefore, the injured person’s head should be crossed and the airway should be straightened. Next, for 10 seconds we have to feel, hear, see her breaths. Usually, the respiratory rate is 12-18 breaths per minute. Accordingly, in these 10 seconds we have to feel, hear, see 2-3 breaths.- then the cerebral cortex dies. Here, the rescuer must remember the so-called "survival chain" (a procedure that reduces mortality in the event of cardiac arrest):

1. Early recognition of the situation and call for help.
2. Early cardiopulmonary resuscitation - buy time in death (buy time in death before the arrival of an ambulance with a defibrillator).
3. Early defibrillation (there should be defibrillators in public places and access to them; this link in the chain has the greatest value for survival). But, unfortunately, automatic defibrillators are available only in large cities of Ukraine, such as Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro. They were purchased especially for Euro 2012. That is not in the regional city, or in any settlement of city type not to find them. Although the use of a defibrillator increases the chances of survival of an adult by 30-36%, because the cause of sudden death of a person over 45 years, 66% are cardiovascular disease. Children are not affected by the use of a defibrillator: as a rule, they have another cause of respiratory arrest - foreign objects in the airways, spasms.
4. Treatment of post-resuscitation disease - qualified medical care.According to statistics, the most common emergency condition in adults - sudden cardiac arrest? Yes, it is important that each of us is able to help a person in such a situation and do cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Again, according to the protocol from 2014, the sequence of actions by non-medical workers is as follows:

1) make sure there is no danger;
2) check consciousness;
3) if the victim does not respond →call for help → restore airway patency and determine the presence of respiration by taking "hear, see, feel", determine the presence of respiration within 10 seconds → if breathing is absent, call an ambulance and start cardiopulmonary resuscitation: perform 30 chest compressions not less than 5 cm deep (not more than 6 cm), with a frequency of 100 pressures (not more than 120) per minute, 1.5 - 2 per second; perform 2 breaths using a valve film (in the absence of protective equipment do not give artificial respiration); performance of 2 breaths should last no more than 5 seconds; after 2 breaths continue to press on the chest (principle 30/2) → if breathing is not restored, then until the arrival of doctors to continue cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Roman, what are the mortality statistics for not providing timely medical care in Ukraine?

The numbers are disappointing - only 15 percent out of 100 - such statistics of effective resuscitation. Only 10 people survive. You know, calling an ambulance is not a resuscitation action, but in 10-15 minutes until the medical team arrives, the person can no longer be saved. The biggest flaw of our people is the transfer of responsibility. In particular, for doctors. Why are Ukrainians dying out? Because they are irresponsible about their lives and health. Only systematic training, constant updating of knowledge and practice of acquired skills, allows you to be confident in yourself and your actions in unpredictable situations.Simple things save, simple things kill - on the one hand it is a simple logical algorithm, on the other - someone’s life is saved. There is always a choice, but not everyone has the courage and sense of responsibility to make it. And what about current trends: is the number of people willing to acquire knowledge and skills to provide medical care increasing?

You know, until 2014, before the Revolution of Dignity, no one was interested in this topic. After the tragic events on the Maidan, people suddenly wanted to learn this, they wanted to be able to provide first aid. Unequivocally, now the trend is increasing. And this is good! "He who saves one life will save the whole world" - Talmud . As for the skills of tactical medicine, they have become trendy since the beginning of the war in eastern Ukraine.

Friends, take care of yourself and each other, because human life is the most valuable thing in the world!

Author Kateryna Stebelska
Illustrations provided by Roman Babych