First Aid

First water, then the rest

Cool down the burn for 20 minutes in cool water.

The skin is more than you think.
The skin is the largest organ of our body.
It prevents dehydration, protects against harmfull materials, helps to regulate the temperature of the body and takes care of the waste materials in the body. With a very severe burn all these functions cease.

How and why cool burns?

Cool the burn immediatly after a fire incident for at least 20 minutes in fresh, running water. Do it as quickly as possible, for half an hour later it won't avail anymore.

Importance of the cooling !

Cooling is important to get a good and quick healing. Cooling down with fresh water tempers the body temperature, fights the continue burning and therefore can limit the depth of the burn.

Exception

Only in two cases you aren't allowed to cool the injury:
•  In case of a large surface you are only allowed to use lukewarm water (25 C), never cold water. Why? To prevent supercooling and cold-injury.
•  In case of electrical burn, of course you never use any water when the victim still is connected with or near the source of electricity. First switch off the electricity at an electrical burn, only then you might help the victim. Also contact a doctor.

Degree of depth and size of burn

The size of the burning is measured in % of the surface of the body. A hand with connected fingers exists of 1% of the total surface of the body. Doctors use the hand of the victim as maeasuring instrument.

How can you take care of the burns?

1. In general

•  Wash your hands carefully with soap before every treatment.
•  To change the bandage: remove the old bandage by taking off on the outside and throw it away immediatly.
•  To remove an adhesive bandage: Protect the outer skin to ease the pain (especially with children and elderly people).
•  First remove rest of cream, crusts or pus with water. Therefore you have to put an sterile bandage under running water, without touching the tap with the bandage.
•  Always cleanse the wound with Hibidil before you apply a bandage: have a look at the expiry date first!
•  Never touch the victim with your fingers and avoid contact with the bandage which comes directly on the wound. Use, if possible, disposable gloves to replace a new bandage. Watch out: only put on the gloves after you removed the old bandage, disinfected the wound and opened the package of the new bandage.
•  If you use a swathe, don't fasten it too strongly, to avoid the tie off, pressure and pain. To put on a swathe around an arm or leg, always start at the bottom (the side closest to the hand or foot) and turn it upwards.

2. First degree burns

•  Cool for 20 minutes under fresh, running water.
•  Look at the expiry date of the Flamigel tube.
•  Put a layer of 5mm Flamigel on: first on the gauze dressing in stead of the wound. In this way you avoid bacterial infection of the cream-tube. Adhesive the gauze dressing if necessary or with a hydrophilic swathe.

Large wounds (eg. Sunburns)

•  Cool down the skin under a shower
•  Hydratate the skin with Flamigel and repeat this until the redness and pain are disappeared.

•  Cool the skin during 20 minutes under running water.

Blister treatment

•  Don't open the blisters, in this way you limit the chance of infection.
•  Are the blisters cause any pain or open by friction, you can prick them with a sterile needle and dab the fluid with a sterile wrathe, soaked with Hibidil. Don't remove the skin of the wound.

Disinfect and remove little stones and rests of clothes

•  Break off the top of the bottle of Hibidil and wet it with a gauze dressing.
•  Dab the wound gently and use circular movements.
•  Use enough gauze dressings to cleanse well. Never use a dirty wrathe on the already clean zone.
•  Inspect the wound daily.
•  Always cleanse the skin before you apply a new bandage. Remove all cream rests carefully.

Checklist

•  Is the burn smaller than a coin of 2 euro?
Treat the wound according to the method mentioned above.

•  Is the burn bigger than a coin of 2 euro and does it show blisters?
Keep cooling down.
Contact a doctor.

•  Is the burn bigger than a hand?
Keep cooling down.
Call the nearest burn centre. An admission will probably be necessary.

•  Never remove burned clothes which stick to the body.
•  Apply dry sterile nandage after 20 minutes of cooling down.
•  Don't give any sedatives. Pain is one of the most important indicators to determine the degree of the burn.
•  Don't give any food or drinks.
•  Take care that the victim doesn't cool down.
•  The victim has to get to a burn centre as quick as possible, also if the transfer takes long. During the first hours the transfer will be easier to endure. Do you fear any breathing-difficulties? In that case transfer the victim seated.