Safety Goals for your AQUATIC new years reSOLUTIONS
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Do you have a first aid kit in the home—and would you know what to do in case you or someone you loved had an injury that required immediate treatment? If you’re like most people, you may not be as prepared as you’d like to be. The New Year is a great time to take stock of that—and make sure that if the worst happens, you’re ready. Here are a few things you can resolve to do in the New Year.
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1. Take a CPR and First aid course
- Learn CPR
If you keep just one of your first aid-related resolutions in the coming year, we hope it’s this one. Everyone can learn to perform CPR, and training is fast and simple—all you need is a quick video lesson on hands-only CPR, which is easy to perform and remember.
However, studies show that over 70% of Americans would feel uncomfortable and unprepared to act immediately in an emergency where CPR is needed. This is an underreported national tragedy, because about 88% of cardiac arrests occur at home—nowhere near a hospital. Approximately 383,000 people every year have sudden cardiac arrests in the United States, and many of them appear healthy and have no prior known heart problems. If you ever have cause to use your CPR skills, chances are high it will be to save someone you love.
And effective bystander CPR does save lives. It can take emergency services precious minutes to arrive on the scene of a cardiac arrest, and the brain begins to die immediately when it is starved of oxygen. Only about 8% of people who fall victim to cardiac arrest outside of a hospital recover, but when victims get CPR immediately from a bystander, their chance of survival doubles or even triples. However, only about 32% of cardiac victims receives CPR from a bystander.
- Learn First Aid
It’s also a great idea to learn the basics of first aid—especially if you have children, but even if you don’t. Heat stroke, deep cuts, hypothermia, broken bones, and any number of other injuries and ailments can happen quickly and unexpectedly—and if you are ever in the vicinity when something happens, you’ll be glad you learned first aid. For a start, it’s a great idea to learn how to respond to the following:
- Learn CPR
If you keep just one of your first aid-related resolutions in the coming year, we hope it’s this one. Everyone can learn to perform CPR, and training is fast and simple—all you need is a quick video lesson on hands-only CPR, which is easy to perform and remember.
However, studies show that over 70% of Americans would feel uncomfortable and unprepared to act immediately in an emergency where CPR is needed. This is an underreported national tragedy, because about 88% of cardiac arrests occur at home—nowhere near a hospital. Approximately 383,000 people every year have sudden cardiac arrests in the United States, and many of them appear healthy and have no prior known heart problems. If you ever have cause to use your CPR skills, chances are high it will be to save someone you love.
And effective bystander CPR does save lives. It can take emergency services precious minutes to arrive on the scene of a cardiac arrest, and the brain begins to die immediately when it is starved of oxygen. Only about 8% of people who fall victim to cardiac arrest outside of a hospital recover, but when victims get CPR immediately from a bystander, their chance of survival doubles or even triples. However, only about 32% of cardiac victims receives CPR from a bystander.
- Learn First Aid
It’s also a great idea to learn the basics of first aid—especially if you have children, but even if you don’t. Heat stroke, deep cuts, hypothermia, broken bones, and any number of other injuries and ailments can happen quickly and unexpectedly—and if you are ever in the vicinity when something happens, you’ll be glad you learned first aid. For a start, it’s a great idea to learn how to respond to the following:
- Cuts and lacerations
- Broken bones, sprains, and strains
- Shock
- Bites and bee stings
- Heat stroke and hypothermia (depending on the climate where you live)
- Frostbite (depending on the weather)
- Choking
- Head injuries
- Burns
2. Make a first aid kit
It’s always a good idea to have one—but fewer families have a fully-stocked first aid kit than you’d think. Here are a few things that the Red Cross recommends you stock your home first aid kit with:
It’s always a good idea to have one—but fewer families have a fully-stocked first aid kit than you’d think. Here are a few things that the Red Cross recommends you stock your home first aid kit with:
- 5x9-inch absorbent compress dressings
- A box of adhesive bandages or Band-Aids of varying sizes
- 1 adhesive cloth tape, 10 yards long and 1 inch thick
- Antibiotic ointment and antiseptic wipes
- Aspirin
- A blanket (for warming shock and hypothermia victims)
- A breathing barrier with a one-way valve
- An instant cold compress
- A pair of non-latex gloves
- A pair of scissors
- Roller bandages, sterile gauze pads, and triangular bandagesAn oral thermometerA pair of tweezers
- An instruction booklet for first aid or the American Red Cross Free app
Be Ready For an Emergency with Aquatic Solutions..