What should you do if you identify an open fracture?

In the photo, there is a diagram of a broken lower leg bone, a fragment of which has pierced the skin - an open fracture. In such a case you immobilise the two adjacent joints - answer B.

The Road Traffic Act requires a person involved in an accident to give the necessary help to the victims, and with a fracture the rule is to immobilise the joints above and below the fracture - for the lower leg these are the knee joint and the ankle joint. Only then will the bone fragments not shift with every movement, which reduces pain, bleeding and the risk of damage to blood vessels and nerves. In an open fracture, you cover the wound with a sterile dressing without pressing on the protruding bone; cotton wool (answer A) leaves fibres in the wound and sticks to it. Pulling the limb (answer C) to "set" the fracture is a job for a doctor after an X-ray - when a layperson does it, it ends in additional tissue damage and shock caused by pain. You immobilise the limb in the position in which you found it, for example by tying it to the healthy leg, and you wait for the ambulance, watching whether the casualty turns pale or loses consciousness.

Legal basis: Art. 44 para. 2 point 1 of the Road Traffic Act (Prawo o ruchu drogowym); Art. 162 § 1 of the Criminal Code