Your alertness can save a life

People don’t really realize that serious accidents can happen in home/outside/office environment. But in fact, accidents are just as likely to happen in anywhere in office as they are on a construction site or in a factory. The sad thing is that most of these accidents are preventable by following simple health and safety guidelines and a little bit of common sense.

Tips to tackle a medical emergency in office:

·   At some prominent place display all emergency information and telephone numbers, which are required to be called upon in case of any emergency which includes

          i.         Fire Fighting Department

          ii.        No. of nearest hospital and Ambulance service

          iii.        Location of First Aid kit at the workplace

          iv.        Number of nearest police station

·     At the time of emergency first check the pulse and then make sure that the heart beat and breathing is  not stopped. And if, this would be the case, remember every second counts

·    Try to calm down yourself; what had to happen has just happened. Your undue hurry  and turbulence can even worsen the situation

·    Most of times, an affected person can safely be moved to a more suitable position. However this is not  the case with someone with neck or back bone injuries. In such situations, try not to move that person, unless there is some other extreme bad is expected if person keeps laying on that place (e.g. risk of fire or extreme cold etc)

·   Have someone call for medical assistance while you apply first aid & stay calm. Your calmness can allay the fear and panic of the patient

·  Try not to give any liquids to an unconscious or semiconscious person, they may enter windpipe of victim and cause suffocation

The author is the CEO at Ziqitza Health Care Limited, India’s leading organization which provides First Responder Program to schools, colleges and Corporate. The workshops seek to dispel common misconceptions on how to treat medical emergencies and aims at educating people on general principles of First Aid which can play a crucial role in emergency situation. The company has trained over 22,000 people from various schools, colleges & corporate sectors till date. For more information, you can write to her on sweta.mangal@zhl.in