First Aid Basics
Every lesson opens on a short narrated video, then walks you through what to do in the first minutes of an emergency: stay safe, call for help, and keep someone going until help arrives.
For anyone who has ever wondered what they would actually do if someone collapsed, choked or got badly hurt in front of them. No medical background needed. Each of the twelve lessons starts with a short video that shows the steps, so you see them before you read them. You learn to check for danger and call your local emergency number (115 in Iran, 112 or 911 in many other places), put someone in the recovery position, give hands-only CPR and use an AED, and handle choking, heavy bleeding, burns, falls, allergic reactions and heat or cold, plus the popular 'remedies' that make things worse. This follows mainstream guidance from the Red Cross and the resuscitation councils, but it is general education, not a certificate: the course keeps telling you to take a hands-on first aid class, because pressing a real chest is something you learn with your hands.
By the end you can
- Check an emergency for danger, see whether someone is responsive and breathing, and call your local emergency number with the right information
- Recognise a cardiac arrest, give hands-only CPR and use an AED until help arrives
- Take the first steps that matter for choking, severe bleeding, burns, broken bones and head injuries
- Spot a severe allergic reaction or heat and cold illness, avoid the common harmful myths, and know why a certified hands-on course comes next
The first minute
- Danger first, then call for help
Stop for three seconds to check the scene is safe, then call your local emergency number and tell them exactly where you are and what happened.
- Is she awake? Is she breathing?
Check whether someone responds, open their airway, and spend no more than ten seconds deciding whether they are breathing normally.
- The recovery position
Roll someone who is unresponsive but breathing normally onto their side so their airway stays open, then keep watching their breathing.
When breathing stops
- Hands-only CPR
When someone is unresponsive and not breathing normally, push hard and fast in the centre of the chest, 100 to 120 times a minute, until help or an AED arrives.
- Using an AED
Switch the AED on and do what it says: it checks the heart itself and only shocks if a shock is needed, so anyone can use one.
- Choking
Tell a mild blockage from a severe one, and clear a severe one in an adult with back blows and abdominal thrusts.
Injuries
- Severe bleeding and shock
Press hard and keep pressing to stop heavy bleeding, and look after someone who is going into shock.
- Burns
Cool a burn under cool running water for 20 minutes, cover it loosely, and know when it needs a hospital.
- Falls: bones, sprains and head injuries
Support a suspected broken bone as you find it, cool a sprain, and know the warning signs after a knock to the head that mean getting help fast.
Sudden illness, and putting it together
- Severe allergic reactions
Recognise anaphylaxis, help someone use their own adrenaline auto-injector, call for help, and position them safely.
- Too hot, too cold
Tell heat exhaustion from heat stroke and cool someone fast when it's serious, and rewarm someone with hypothermia gently.
- What not to do, and putting it all together
Drop the popular remedies that make things worse, walk through a whole emergency from danger check to handover, and plan your next step: a hands-on course.
Keep it, don't just read it
Pathwise brings each idea back just before you'd forget it, with a quick question. Free on Android and on the web, in English and Persian.