How should you secure a victim of an open limb fracture?

In the drawing, a lower leg with a broken bone whose sharp fragment pierces the skin - an open fracture. You secure a casualty with an open limb fracture by immobilising the two neighbouring joints - answer B.

With a fracture, you immobilise the joint above and the joint below the fracture site - for the lower leg these are the knee and the ankle. This stops the bone fragments from moving and further injuring blood vessels and nerves, and the pain is less. First, however, you cover the wound with a sterile dressing, without pushing the protruding bone back in and without touching it. Cotton wool (answer A) sticks to the wound and leaves fibres in it, so it is not suitable as a dressing. Pulling on the limb (answer C) is very dangerous - sharp fragments can cut an artery, and the dirty bone can go back into the wound. The Road Traffic Act requires you to give the necessary help: you immobilise the limb in the position in which you found it, e.g. with a rolled blanket or by tying it to the other leg, and call an ambulance.

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