Even if you don’t have Asthma, its good for every person to know the first aid for an Asthma attack because Asthma is so prevalent, and the risk of a severe Asthma attack may be fatal.

 Over 2 million Australians have asthma

 1 in 10 Australians have asthma

 On average more than one Australian dies every day from asthma

What is Asthma?

A condition of the airways in the lungs.  The airways narrow and possibly close completely. The person is unable to breath.

What causes an Asthma attack?

Triggers can be: Exercise   Colds/Flu  Smoke  Weather changes  Dust and dust mites  Moulds  Pollens  Animals  Chemicals Deodorants and perfumes  Foods and additives  Certain medications  Emotions

What are the signs/symptoms of an Asthma attack?

What is the first aid for an Asthma attack?

In an Asthma attack ONLY THE BLUE/GREY PUFFER WILL HELP

Step 1
Sit the person upright
 Be calm and reassuring
 Do not leave them alone
Step 2
Give 4 puffs of blue reliever puffer medication
 Use a spacer if there is one
 Shake puffer
 Put 1 puff into spacer
 Take 4 breaths from spacer
 Repeat until 4 puffs have been taken
REMEMBER: SHAKE, 1 PUFF, 4 BREATHS
Step 3
If there is no improvement give 4 more puffs as above
Step 4
If there is still no improvement call emergency assistance (DIAL OOO)* (AUSTRALIA)
 Say ‘ambulance’ and that someone is having an asthma attack
 Keep giving 4 puffs every 4 minutes until emergency assistance
arrives
*If calling Triple Zero (000) does not work on your mobile phone, try 112

Don’t delay treatment.  If you have the symptoms of a severe asthma attack and you haven’t got your blue/grey puffer – call emergency assistance DIAL 000

In Australia, the first aid qualification required by most workplaces would be the HLTAID003 Provide First Aid, (previously called Senior First Aid, or Apply First Aid).  People are always asking me, “how often do I need to do another first aid course?”.

The answer is every 3 years for the full course, and in most cases, every year for the CPR component.

The Provide First Aid qualification is valid for 3 years.  If you renew, by attending another first aid course, before your certificate expires – then you are generally eligible for a ‘Refresher’ course.  If your Provide First Aid certificate has expired – even by one day – you will generally be required to complete the full Provide First Aid course.  Some training organisations will require you to attend training over 2 full days, at extra cost.  At Port Lincoln Training we require just the 1 day of face to face training,  for the same cost of a Refresher.

As for the CPR – well, it’s not so cut and dried.   The recommendation from the Australian Resuscitation Council is that CPR should be updated every 12 months, this is based on many studies that show we just don’t retain our CPR training for very long.  That is the recommendation, but it does depend on your industry if they will require you to update your CPR every 12 months.  The CPR qualification is called HLTAID001 Provide Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation.

So, check the date of your previous first aid certificate and book a new course just before your old one expires to be eligible for the Refresher.   Check with your workplace if they require you to update your CPR each 12 months – but honestly, for a morning update session on how to provide CPR, which may possibly help to save your family members life – consider re-booking every 12 months to update your CPR skills.

When any person is not responding and not breathing normally, they need you to push hard and fast on the center of their chest 30 times.  Then you should; tilt their head up, close their nose, place your mouth over their mouth and give them rescue breaths – or mouth to mouth, for 2 breaths.

This whole procedure is called CPR – cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

It totally may save a person’s life.

However, here are some reasons people might ask, “do I have to do mouth to mouth?”

• Fear of getting AIDS
• Fear of other diseases
• Presence of blood around victims mouth
• Presence of vomit around victims mouth
• I’m a guy – he’s a guy, I don’t want to ‘kiss’ him
• Moustaches

Gross huh?!

The good news is that unconscious humans probably have oxygen still in their system, and when you provide chest compressions hard and fast – you are pushing that oxygen rich blood to their brain, effectively delaying death.   This is why the Australian Resuscitation Council  recommend if you are unable or unwilling to do mouth to mouth, you should just continuously do chest compressions.   Any attempt at resuscitation is better than no attempt at all.

The science behind compression’s only CPR it is valid – as you push on the chest, blood pressure builds up, and each time you stop for any reason, even to give mouth to mouth, the blood pressure drops back to ‘0’.  Continuous chest compressions keeps the blood pressure up and oxygen pumping to the brain.  So you are doing a great thing if you choose just to give compression only CPR!

It is still encouraged to provide mouth to mouth if you can, especially for children and babies. Children and babies  are more likely to have had a breathing issue than an electrical heart issue, which means they may have gone a while without oxygen and  will benefit from more oxygen being breathed into them.  It is also especially good for people who have nearly drowned, as in the process of drowning a victim uses up a lot of their oxygen.

You can always use a mask device to give mouth to mouth – this will eliminate any ‘yuck’ factor as well.  Workplace first aid kits will have these, you could also buy one to keep in your car, or a small version to keep on your key ring.

So – “do I have to do mouth to mouth?” Then answer is: we want you to, but if you are unable or unwilling – just push hard and fast on the victims chest until the ambulance arrives or the person comes back to life.   You may totally save that persons life.

Last night my 12 year old daughter was sprayed in the face with a broken glo-stick. Luckily my 14 year old daughter came to the rescue by immediately helping her to flush her eyes with water.  This is because she has listened as I’ve taught her little bits of first aid over the years  (the 12 year old obviously hasn’t been quite as good at listening….)

Over 14 years of playdates, I’ve seen a lot of kids who have been cut not know how to manage bleeding. They will invariably place the wound under water and allow it bleed freely, or do things like suck the blood (ew), or squeeze the wound causing it to bleed more.  Basic first aid knowledge would guide them to apply pressure to the wound, elevate and seek help.

As kids become teens they often have no immediate adult supervision and will be left to handle first aid situations on their own with their peers.

Sometimes they may even delay getting adult help if they are injured in the course of being a bit naughty – eg playing with a knife in the shed, or playing with matches when they aren’t meant to, or perhaps getting burned as they experiment with cooking alone…

Kids and teens definitely  do need to know what to do to manage basic first aid, and to know how to recognise its an emergency and time to call 000 (Australia)

At Port Lincoln Training we love to teach kids and teens basic first aid – including changing their idea that the Australia Emergency phone number is not 911!!!  (Its 000:)