Emergency First Aid – Priorities of Treatment

When dealing with a casualty who is injured or ill it is important to treat the most serious condition first.

All life needs a constant supply of oxygen to survive. If that oxygen is taken away for any reason, then brain cells will start to die within 3 to 4 minutes.

The priorities  therefore is aimed at firstly getting oxygen into the blood stream, ensuring that the blood is circulating around the body, and then preventing the loss of that blood.

Priority number one then with any patient is to make sure the Airway is open and then to check they are breathing normally.  If the patient is breathing normally, this means that their heart must also be beating, so blood is being circulated around the body.

The next priority is to deal with any major bleeding because you need to maintain enough blood to circulate the oxygen around the body.

After these steps, the next priority is to deal with any broken bones.