First aid for victims of electric shock. First aid and resuscitation

When a person gets an electric shock, it is necessary to immediately provide him with first aid. In this case, every second is precious. If you delay, death may occur. First aid for victims of electric current should be carried out according to a certain algorithm. If everything is done correctly, then the patient can be reanimated even before the doctors arrive.

Signs and effects of electrical injury

How to identify an injury?

1. The smell of burning (skin, clothing, hair, electrical appliance, etc.).
2. A person is near an electrical appliance or wires.
3. Pallor of the skin.
4. No pulse or breathing.
5. There is a shock state.
6. There are signs of current on the victim’s body - burns in those places where the electric current entered and exited.

If the body has hemorrhages or multiple burns, in most cases a fatal outcome occurs. Those who survived after receiving electrical injuries are usually in a coma.

If a high voltage electrical injury was received, the victim will experience hypovolemic shock, hypotension, and kidney failure will develop.

Next, tissue destruction caused by electric shock will develop. In addition, there is a risk of exacerbation of chronic gastrointestinal pathologies (ulcerative colitis, bleeding, etc.), anaerobic and aerobic infections, pulmonary edema. In almost every case, cerebral edema is observed, accompanied by a coma, from which the victim does not exit for several days.

First aid for electric shock victims

This is a sequence of activities that will help restore or maintain the health or life of the victim. Carried out by independent forces or non-medical workers.

First aid to victims of electric shock should be carried out urgently. The sooner it is provided, the higher the probability of a favorable outcome.

If a person is injured by electric current, first aid should have a certain sequence:

1. The effect of damaging factors on the body is eliminated. The victim is freed from the action of the current, his condition is evaluated.
2. The nature, severity of the injury and the sequence of measures to save the person are determined.
3. The necessary measures are taken to save the patient in urgency.
4. Until the arrival of medical workers, the vital functions of the victim are maintained.
5. An ambulance is called or measures are being taken to move a person to a medical institution.

Let's consider each of these points separately.

The release of man from the action of current

If a person who has received an electrical injury comes into contact with live parts, it is necessary to immediately release him from the harmful effects of current. First aid for victims of electric shock is carried out with all precautions. Otherwise, you yourself can be in contact with electricity and get a discharge.

Before touching a person with electrical injury, you must protect your hands by wearing dielectric gloves on them. If there are none, just wrap a scarf or hat on your limbs. You can also stand on a rubber mat, a board, or wear rubber boots.

Try to turn off the appliance, and if it is impossible to disconnect it (with electrical installation up to 1000 V), you need to chop the wire with an ax with a wooden handle or bite it with a tool that must have insulated handles. To disconnect a high voltage line (VL), you can make it a short circuit. This is done like this: a wire is thrown over it without insulation.

The victim is delayed for dry clothing, but only if it does not stick to the body. Touching the skin, shoes, wet clothes is not allowed. If a person squeezes the wires, it is necessary to isolate their limbs (with a cap or dielectric gloves) and unclench each finger separately.

If the injured person is injured at height, shutting down the unit is likely to cause it to fall. In this case, it is important to ensure a safe landing.

How to determine the condition of the victim

First aid for electric current depends on the severity of the injury. To check the condition of a person, lay him on his back. Signs by which the condition of the patient is determined:

1. Respiratory failure: wheezing, superficial, abnormal, absent, normal.
2. Consciousness: absent, clear, disturbed, inhibited.
3. Pulse felt on the carotid artery: absent, poorly / well defined.
4. The color of visible mucous membranes (eyes, lips) and skin: pale, cyanotic, pink.
5. Pupils: wide or narrow.

First aid when exposed to electric current

First aid must be provided immediately after determining the condition of the patient on the spot.

1. If a person is conscious, but for a long time was under the influence of current (1 degree of electric shock), lay him on his back, call a doctor. While the ambulance team has not arrived, provide the victim with peace and continuously monitor your pulse and breathing. If you do not have the opportunity to call a doctor, immediately take him to the hospital yourself, since the negative effect of the current may not immediately appear, but after hours or even days.
2. When a person is unconscious, but he has a pulse and breathing (2nd degree of electric shock), lay him on his back, unfasten his clothes so that more fresh air will flow. After allowing to breathe ammonia, wipe your face with cold water, rub and warm the body. Call a doctor immediately.
3. When a person is unconscious and breathing heavily (with a sob, convulsive, irregular, rare), but the heart is functioning normally (grade 3 electrical injury), resuscitation is necessary.
4. When a person does not have a pulse, breathing and other signs of life, this is a state of clinical death (grade 4). First aid from electric shock in this case should be carried out immediately. If 5-7 minutes have passed after cardiac arrest, due to a lack of oxygen, brain cells begin to decay. As a result, biological death occurs.

Remember! If you do not find signs of life in a person, you should still try to resuscitate him, since only a doctor ascertains death!

Artificial respiration rules

First aid from electric current is the proper conduct of artificial respiration. The main goal is to saturate the blood with oxygen, remove carbon dioxide from it, and restore breathing.

There are manual and hardware methods. The manual method is applied immediately after detecting a violation of breathing problems. You can perform artificial respiration from mouth to nose or from mouth to mouth. The mouth-to-mouth method is most effective:

• a sufficiently large amount of air enters the lungs (up to 1500 ml);
• You can control the flow of air into the lungs of the victim.

Among the shortcomings, the possibility of mutual infection and a sense of disgust stands out. In this case, it is better to blow air through gauze, a handkerchief or a special tube.

Getting ready for rescue breathing

First aid for victims of electric current is carried out on a horizontal surface. It must be put on the back, unfastened the belt, the collar to be freed from clothes that make breathing difficult.

Next, throw back the victim’s head high. To do this, put one hand under his neck, and the other press on his forehead. The mouth should open and the larynx should be released. The oral cavity should be cleaned of blood, mucus, foreign bodies. You also need to remove the dentures, if any.

How to carry out artificial respiration

Hold the nostrils of the victim with your fingers. Take a deep breath, cover your mouth with his lips and blow in air. If you can’t open your mouth, you can inhale air through your nose. It is necessary to control the intake of air by raising / lowering the chest when blowing.

Artificial respiration should be performed before the arrival of emergency doctors or until the person regains deep rhythmic breathing.

Indoor cardiac massage

If a person has suffered from electric current, first aid should also include an indirect massage of the heart muscle. This is necessary to maintain blood circulation in the body and restore natural heart contractions. Such a massage is carried out simultaneously with artificial respiration.

The legs of the victim should be raised by half a meter for greater efficiency. It is necessary to press on the lower third of the sternum.

Put one palm on the other from the back and begin to press with the base of the lower palm (not the whole palm). The fingers must be raised high. They should not touch the sternum of the victim. The pressure should be carried out with all his might by jerks with a frequency of 1 time per second to ensure sufficient blood flow.

It is necessary to control the correctness of a closed massage by palpating the pulse, narrowing the pupils, spontaneous breathing of the victim, reducing the blueness of the skin and mucous membranes.

Older people should do this massage carefully so as not to accidentally break the sternum and ribs. If the pulse is absent for a long time, but other signs of life appear, first aid from electric current must be continued until the doctors arrive.

First Aid Scheme for Electrical Injury

1. If the pulse is not palpable and there is no consciousness, resuscitation is necessary.
2. When there is a pulse, but a person is unconscious, the victim must be turned over on his stomach and his mouth cleaned.
3. In the presence of arterial bleeding, a tourniquet is applied.
4. If there are wounds on the body, dressings are applied.
5. If there are fractures of the bones of the limbs, tires are applied.

It is possible to transport the victim to a medical facility only if he has a steady pulse and satisfactory breathing. When a person’s condition does not allow him to be transported, it is necessary to continue providing first aid to the victim of electric current.

Is it possible to do without calling an ambulance?

If a person has suffered from electric shock, you can provide first aid measures yourself. But all victims of electrical injuries are subject to mandatory hospitalization.

As a result, an ambulance must be called after any electric shock. For a week or more, repeated cardiac arrests and secondary shock phenomena can occur.

If you are carrying a person with an electric injury to a medical institution on your own, transport him in a prone position. In this case, one must carefully monitor his condition and be ready at any second to provide assistance in case of impaired cardiac activity or respiratory arrest. If a person has not regained consciousness, during transportation it is necessary to continue resuscitation.