What should you use as a dressing for severely-bleeding wounds?
Show the correct answer
Correct answer
B. A pressure dressing of gauze, cloth and bandage.
Explanation
In the photo, there is a heavily bleeding wound on the forearm and an open first aid kit with gauze and a triangular bandage. You dress a heavily bleeding wound with a pressure dressing - answer B.
The Road Traffic Act requires a person involved in an accident to give the necessary help to the victims, and with heavy bleeding every minute counts - an adult can bleed to death within a few minutes. A pressure dressing is sterile gauze on the wound, a firm pad on top of it (a bandage roll, a folded triangular bandage) and tight wrapping with a bandage; the pressure closes the blood vessels, and you lay the casualty down so that they do not faint. Gauze alone (answer A) will not stop arterial bleeding - it just soaks through; if the dressing soaks through, you do not remove it but add another layer. Iodine and gentian violet (answer C) are disinfectants for small scratches, not for heavy bleeding - pouring them into a deep wound hurts, does not stop the blood and makes the surgeon's work harder later. You work in gloves from the first aid kit, and when pressure does not help and the bleeding threatens life, you apply a tourniquet above the wound and write down the time it was applied.
Legal basis: Art. 44 para. 2 point 1 of the Road Traffic Act (Prawo o ruchu drogowym); Art. 162 § 1 of the Criminal Code