First Aid For Severe Bleeding

1. Direct pressure on a would will stop most bleeding. Put on latex gloves from your first aid kit. With a clean cloth or sterile dressing as a pad, use the palm of your hand to apply firm pressure directly over the wound. Don't waste time - when clean material is not close by, use a neckerchief, shirt, or whatever eles you can reach.

2. While pressing on the wound. raise te injury above the level of the victims's heart.

3. Direct pressure is almost always the treatment of choice. Bleeding can sometimes be further slowed by pressing hard on an arterial pressure point in the victim's armpit or groin. Try using pressure points if direct pressure over broken bones will cause further injur or if the nature of a wound makes direct pressure ineffective.

4. Don't remove a direct pressure pad that has become soaked with blood. Instead, place a fresh pad over the first one and continue applying pressure.

5. When the bleeding has stopped, hold the pad in place with a cravat bandage, an athletic wrap, strips torn from clothing , or something elese close at hand. Bind the pad firmly but not so tightly that circulation is cut off. If the bandage is on an arm or a leg, periodically feel for a pulse further out on the limb-at the wrist or just behind the ankle bone. No pulse is an indication the bandage is too tight. In all cases of serious bleeding, get the victim under medical supervision.

6. If you have touched any blood or other bodily fluids, wash your skin with soap and water or cleanse with an antiseptic as soon as possible, and change out of clothing that might have come in contact with blood.