What is the first rule of giving aid (outdoors even more than indoors)?
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Protect yourself first
Cliff terrain, currents, cold: a helper who gets into danger becomes the second casualty and doubles the rescuers' workload.
All questions with answers
What does it mean when a badly chilled person stops shivering?
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The hypothermia has become life-threatening
Shivering is the body's furnace. If it dies down while the cold remains, the energy reserves are spent: now every minute counts: emergency call, wind shelter, slow rewarming.
Why do some severely hypothermic people strip off shortly before collapsing?
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They suddenly feel hot: "paradoxical undressing"
When vessel control fails, warm blood floods the cold skin: the brain reports a heat wave. That is why victims of fatal hypothermia are sometimes found undressed.
Why must the severely hypothermic be moved with extreme care?
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Rough handling can trigger cardiac arrest
Cold blood from arms and legs can surge to the heart during handling: rescuers call it rescue collapse. Lay flat, warm the torso first, never rub.
Should you rub frostbitten fingers or toes vigorously, even with snow?
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No: never rub
Rubbing drags ice crystals through the tissue and worsens the damage. Correct: rewarm slowly with body-warm to lukewarm water, cover sterile and never let it refreeze.
Why can 5 degrees with wind and rain be more dangerous than minus 5 in still air?
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Wet and wind strip heat many times faster
Wet clothing conducts heat away about 25 times faster than dry air, and wind carries off the warm layer around the body: the wind-chill effect. Most hypothermia happens above freezing.
How do you recognise life-threatening heatstroke as opposed to heat exhaustion?
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Hot, dry skin and confusion
With exhaustion you still sweat (in heatstroke the temperature control has failed): skin hot and dry, mind clouded. Emergency call, into the shade, cool aggressively.
What is irritated in sunstroke (and how do you notice it)?
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The meninges: red hot head and stiff neck
Hours of sun on head and neck irritate the membranes around the brain: headache, nausea, stiff neck, while the body itself may not even be overheated. Shade, head raised, cool.
How do you remove a tick correctly?
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Grip close to the skin and pull out slowly and straight
With tweezers or a tick card, grip close to the skin, don't squeeze, don't twist and forget the oil and glue tricks: they make the tick vomit into the wound.
Which illness announces itself days after a tick bite with a spreading red ring?
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Lyme disease
The bull's-eye rash is the early sign of Lyme borreliosis: very treatable with antibiotics, but left alone it can attack joints and nerves. Seen the ring? See a doctor.
Sucking, cutting or a tourniquet. What is right for a snakebite?
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None of them: immobilise and get to a doctor
The Western methods make everything worse: tourniquets pool the venom, cutting and sucking add wounds. Right: calm, keep the limb still and low, remove jewellery, call for help. European viper bites are very rarely fatal.
Should you pop a bulging hiking blister?
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Better not (pad and protect it)
Unbroken skin is the best infection barrier. Blister plaster or padding ring on and remove the pressure; only huge, surely-bursting blisters are drained at the edge with a disinfected needle.
What does the RICE rule stand for after a sprain or strain?
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Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation
Stop at once, cool (not directly on skin), wrap elastically, raise the limb; that limits swelling and pain and often decides whether you can walk out on your own.
What is the best thing to flush a dirty wound with outdoors?
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Clean drinking water
Vigorous flushing removes dirt and germs better than any dabbing. Then cover cleanly. No stream water into open wounds: what you wouldn't drink doesn't belong in there either.
Besides the recovery position, what extra must you think of with an unconscious person outdoors?
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Protecting them from the cold ground
The ground drains heat from a motionless body at speed. Slide insulation underneath (jacket, pack, branches) and cover them or unconsciousness turns into hypothermia.
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