Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36010 in Books
• Published on: 1992-05-27
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

From The WomanSource Catalog & Review: Tools for Connecting the Community for Women; review by FGP
I remember my mother keeping an old Red Cross first aid manual in the house when I was a kid; I would consult it whenever my teddy bear needed a sling or bandage. My bear survived, but I'm not sure what happened to that book. Happily, I found this new Handbook. It still has instructions for making slings, as well as current information for dealing with all sorts of emergencies from cuts and burns to electrocutions and strokes. Be sure to keep it with your first aid kit for on-the-spot reference.

Excerpted from The American Red Cross First Aid & Safety Handbook (as appears in The WomanSource Catalog & Review). Copyright(c) 1992. Reprinted by permission, all rights reserved
Animal and Human Bites:
If you have an animal or a human bite, you generally need medical attention because of the likelihood of infection.
* If the victim has been seriously wounded, call EMS.
* If the victim was bitten by an animal, you will need to contact authorities so they can find out whether or not the animal was rabid.

1. Calm and reassure the victim. Put on latex gloves or wash your hands.
2. Check for bleeding. If the bite is not bleeding severely, wash it well (for at least 5 minutes) with mild soap and running water, then apply a bandage. If the bite is actively bleeding, control bleeding by applying direct pressure to the bite; by elevating the injured area; and, if necessary, by using pressure point bleeding control. Do not attempt to clean a wound that is actively bleeding.
3. Get medical help.

Customer Reviews

Needs Update
The book has much of what you expect in a first aid book. The one problem is that the book hasn't been updated in a long time. One of the treatments recommended was outdated and wrong.

Every household should have a copy.
Every household needs a copy of this book and at least one person familiar with its contents.

A must for every home
This is one of the books Michael Hyatt recommends be in your Y2K library. It is the standard reference for dealing with injury and illness until the patient can get to a doctor.

The odds are that every day, people will be injured and you will want to be able to keep them alive and from additional injury. The Red Cross has been a major player in this area throughout the 20th century, and this book is a valuable tool for every household today AND in 2000. The more likely Y2K scenarios will still have medical help available, perhaps just harder to access. Even in the unlikely case where medical care is unavailable, the steps in this book will still be the appropriate first steps for treatment. You may want to find a book on 'wilderness medicine' to cover followup treatment if no doctor is available.