How should you treat an injured person with a severe bleeding from the forearm?
Show the correct answer
Correct answer
A. Place a sterile dressing on the wound, bind it with a bandage and press firmly with a bandage roll, then raise the limb up.
Explanation
The question is about dressing heavy bleeding from the forearm. The answer key indicates applying a sterile dressing, bandaging the wound, additionally pressing it, for example with a roll of bandage, and raising the limb - answer A.
The Road Traffic Act requires you to give the necessary help to the victims of an accident. A pressure dressing - gauze, a hard pad and a tight bandage - is the basic way of stopping heavy bleeding from a limb. You do not remove dressings that have soaked through (answer B): tearing them off opens the wound and pulls away the clot that is forming, so you add more layers on top. Leaving a conscious casualty to help themselves (answer C) is failure to give help - a person with heavy bleeding can quickly become weak and lose consciousness. Note: raising the limb, mentioned in the answer key, is no longer listed in the 2021 European Resuscitation Council guidelines, because there is no evidence that it helps - what matters is strong pressure. You call an ambulance and watch whether the dressing is soaking through.
Legal basis: Art. 44 para. 2 point 1 of the Road Traffic Act (Prawo o ruchu drogowym); Art. 162 § 1 of the Criminal Code