Cristina Yang (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
deaddadsclub) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2018-09-12 12:31 am
deaddadsclub) wrote in fandomhigh2018-09-12 12:31 am
Entry tags:
Humanoid Health and First Aid, Wednesday, Period 1
The students would arrive for class today to find their teacher bent over a tablet in an actual simulation (of a classroom, look, there was still a learning curve here), tapping at various things and chuckling ominously to herself. Someone — probably a squirrel — had finally clued Cristina in on what the Danger Shop was for.
"Oh man. Chief Webber would love this."
She looked up once they'd gathered, then tapped a few last buttons on the tablet and set it aside. "So the squirrels haven't reported on any suspicious deaths around town, so I'm going to assume none of you had to use what we learned last week yet. Lucky you. Today you're going to learn something you're way more likely to actually use in your day to day lives: how to treat a hemorrhage." She tapped a button on her tablet, and the classroom's whiteboard lit up, showing the diagram of the human circulatory system. "This is what your blood is supposed to do. Anything that involves blood moving out of your circulatory system is what's called a hemorrhage. Or bleeding. This can happen internally or externally, and no matter where and why it happens, it'll kill you if it happens too much. Fortunately, your body really likes keeping its blood where it's meant to be, so it already has a system in place to keep from losing too much of it: clotting. Basically, the escaping blood cells bond together to create a plug for the wound to keep anything else from leaking out. Sometimes it needs a little help, though, and that's where you all come in."
Cristina pressed another button and a basic list replaced the diagram. "Most of the time, someone bleeding isn't going to be an emergency. You gut yourself while shaving or get a papercut or a nosebleed, and it hurts a lot, but you're not going to die. You can wash it out and bandage it up yourself and move on with your life. Sometimes, though, you're going to want to the person doing the bleeding to the hospital — or in this case, the clinic. I suggest you write that top list there down. You come into my clinic expecting me to bandage a basic cut that's stopped bleeding on its own, and we're going to have words.
"So, even if you're calling 911 and seeking professional help, you're still going to want to keep as much blood in your patient as possible along the way. Here's how to do that: apply pressure. A lot of it. Continuously. Get a clean towel or gauze or whatever clean, absorbent material you have handy — that includes your own clothes, unless you've been rolling around in the mud or you have bad hygiene or something — and press it down over the wound until the bleeding stops. Usually this should just take a couple minutes, unless the wound is severe, or if the person has a clotting deficiency for any reason. If possible, elevate the wound above the level of the person's heart. That means raise their arm in the air if they cut their elbow or hand, or lay them down and elevate their leg if the wound is there. Blood is a liquid, which means it's subject to gravity. It's not going to want to travel up to get out of the person's body. Then try to keep the person as calm and still as possible until the bleeding stops or further help arrives. Their heart rate speeds up, and so will their bleeding.
"If those two techniques don't work and you are not going to be able to find an actual doctor or emergency tech any time soon, then there are a few other things you can do to save someone. These are for use in absolute emergencies only, as they'll probably result in nasty scarring at best.
"If the blood is coming out of the wound in spurts, that means you have an arterial bleed on your hands. That means that blood coming or going directly to the person's heart is exiting their body, and at high speed. Arterial bleeds can result in death in a matter of minutes, so you have to work quickly. You should still use the above techniques, holding pressure and elevating the injury, but you'll also want to place pressure against the artery itself." She called up another chart. "There are points on your body where the arteries come closer to the skin, called pressure points. If you press down on the nearest one of these closer to the victim's heart than the wound, you can slow down the bleeding and give them a better chance of making it to the hospital. This works on the same principal as a tourniquet, only with slightly less risk of the person losing whatever part of the body you've cut off the circulation to. In general, cutting off someone's circulation is a really bad idea. Only use it in absolute emergencies.
"If you're stuck somewhere for an indefinite amount of time without access to medical assistance, and you can't get someone's bleeding to stop, you're going to need to break out the big guns. A tourniquet in that situation is basically guaranteeing the victim's going to lose a limb, but if you have, say, a sewing kit on you, you can keep them alive and in one piece with only a little gentle maiming." She hit another button on her tablet, this time calling up instructions on suturing. "This is what the doctors will be doing once the victim gets to a hospital, just in a much cleaner, friendlier environment. We're professionals and can minimize scarring. You are not, and the person you're stitching will probably wear a reminder of that fact for life. Still, it can be quite a satisfying way to pass the time. Like knitting." And really, who didn't like knitting? "If you don't have sewing supplies — or even, say, a fish hook and some line — superglue can also be used in a pinch, or even staples or safety pins. In some situations, it's really going to come down to using whatever you have on hand to close that wound.
"And then there's cauterization. That hurts a lot, and you end up with all sorts of other complications from the burns, but it can be quite effective in its own way. Still, you're high school students, not movie action heroes. Don't try to cauterize your wounds."
She pushed one more button, this time calling up a new age website. "Here's a list of things people think can be used to stop bleeding. I don't recommend any of these, but the list itself is kind of hilarious. Very 'don't try these at home', despite them literally advising them as home remedies." She shook her head. "But people will believe anything if it's said on the internet."
She turned back to the class, who had hopefully been madly jotting all of that down. "So rather than practice on more dummies today — or try stitching up some bananas, even though that is a tried and true method of learning to suture — we're going to actually use this room to its full, high tech potential. Students, meet your patients." She pressed a series of buttons, and six new people appeared in the room. They just a handful of random preprogrammed characters she'd pulled up from the menu, and included a punk rocker, a ten year old, a police officer, a sexy zombie nurse, a pirate, and a rodeo clown. All of whom promptly started bleeding from various wounds. "Now keep them alive."
"Oh man. Chief Webber would love this."
She looked up once they'd gathered, then tapped a few last buttons on the tablet and set it aside. "So the squirrels haven't reported on any suspicious deaths around town, so I'm going to assume none of you had to use what we learned last week yet. Lucky you. Today you're going to learn something you're way more likely to actually use in your day to day lives: how to treat a hemorrhage." She tapped a button on her tablet, and the classroom's whiteboard lit up, showing the diagram of the human circulatory system. "This is what your blood is supposed to do. Anything that involves blood moving out of your circulatory system is what's called a hemorrhage. Or bleeding. This can happen internally or externally, and no matter where and why it happens, it'll kill you if it happens too much. Fortunately, your body really likes keeping its blood where it's meant to be, so it already has a system in place to keep from losing too much of it: clotting. Basically, the escaping blood cells bond together to create a plug for the wound to keep anything else from leaking out. Sometimes it needs a little help, though, and that's where you all come in."
Cristina pressed another button and a basic list replaced the diagram. "Most of the time, someone bleeding isn't going to be an emergency. You gut yourself while shaving or get a papercut or a nosebleed, and it hurts a lot, but you're not going to die. You can wash it out and bandage it up yourself and move on with your life. Sometimes, though, you're going to want to the person doing the bleeding to the hospital — or in this case, the clinic. I suggest you write that top list there down. You come into my clinic expecting me to bandage a basic cut that's stopped bleeding on its own, and we're going to have words.
"So, even if you're calling 911 and seeking professional help, you're still going to want to keep as much blood in your patient as possible along the way. Here's how to do that: apply pressure. A lot of it. Continuously. Get a clean towel or gauze or whatever clean, absorbent material you have handy — that includes your own clothes, unless you've been rolling around in the mud or you have bad hygiene or something — and press it down over the wound until the bleeding stops. Usually this should just take a couple minutes, unless the wound is severe, or if the person has a clotting deficiency for any reason. If possible, elevate the wound above the level of the person's heart. That means raise their arm in the air if they cut their elbow or hand, or lay them down and elevate their leg if the wound is there. Blood is a liquid, which means it's subject to gravity. It's not going to want to travel up to get out of the person's body. Then try to keep the person as calm and still as possible until the bleeding stops or further help arrives. Their heart rate speeds up, and so will their bleeding.
"If those two techniques don't work and you are not going to be able to find an actual doctor or emergency tech any time soon, then there are a few other things you can do to save someone. These are for use in absolute emergencies only, as they'll probably result in nasty scarring at best.
"If the blood is coming out of the wound in spurts, that means you have an arterial bleed on your hands. That means that blood coming or going directly to the person's heart is exiting their body, and at high speed. Arterial bleeds can result in death in a matter of minutes, so you have to work quickly. You should still use the above techniques, holding pressure and elevating the injury, but you'll also want to place pressure against the artery itself." She called up another chart. "There are points on your body where the arteries come closer to the skin, called pressure points. If you press down on the nearest one of these closer to the victim's heart than the wound, you can slow down the bleeding and give them a better chance of making it to the hospital. This works on the same principal as a tourniquet, only with slightly less risk of the person losing whatever part of the body you've cut off the circulation to. In general, cutting off someone's circulation is a really bad idea. Only use it in absolute emergencies.
"If you're stuck somewhere for an indefinite amount of time without access to medical assistance, and you can't get someone's bleeding to stop, you're going to need to break out the big guns. A tourniquet in that situation is basically guaranteeing the victim's going to lose a limb, but if you have, say, a sewing kit on you, you can keep them alive and in one piece with only a little gentle maiming." She hit another button on her tablet, this time calling up instructions on suturing. "This is what the doctors will be doing once the victim gets to a hospital, just in a much cleaner, friendlier environment. We're professionals and can minimize scarring. You are not, and the person you're stitching will probably wear a reminder of that fact for life. Still, it can be quite a satisfying way to pass the time. Like knitting." And really, who didn't like knitting? "If you don't have sewing supplies — or even, say, a fish hook and some line — superglue can also be used in a pinch, or even staples or safety pins. In some situations, it's really going to come down to using whatever you have on hand to close that wound.
"And then there's cauterization. That hurts a lot, and you end up with all sorts of other complications from the burns, but it can be quite effective in its own way. Still, you're high school students, not movie action heroes. Don't try to cauterize your wounds."
She pushed one more button, this time calling up a new age website. "Here's a list of things people think can be used to stop bleeding. I don't recommend any of these, but the list itself is kind of hilarious. Very 'don't try these at home', despite them literally advising them as home remedies." She shook her head. "But people will believe anything if it's said on the internet."
She turned back to the class, who had hopefully been madly jotting all of that down. "So rather than practice on more dummies today — or try stitching up some bananas, even though that is a tried and true method of learning to suture — we're going to actually use this room to its full, high tech potential. Students, meet your patients." She pressed a series of buttons, and six new people appeared in the room. They just a handful of random preprogrammed characters she'd pulled up from the menu, and included a punk rocker, a ten year old, a police officer, a sexy zombie nurse, a pirate, and a rodeo clown. All of whom promptly started bleeding from various wounds. "Now keep them alive."
Talk to Cristina