EMT Exam For Dummies with Online Practice by Arthur Hsieh

Author:Arthur Hsieh
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781118814024
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2014-07-04T17:21:48+00:00

Chapter 12

Trauma Basics

In This Chapter

Linking injury patterns to the mechanism of injury

Recognizing injuries that affect the airway, breathing, circulation, and the spinal cord

Taking care of trauma patients, step by step

Trauma is a disease that harms or kills people during their prime years. In fact, you may know that the modern-day EMT was developed in response to this major cause of death on U.S. highways in the early to mid 1960s.

While you have studied a wide variety of injuries in your EMT training, the ones that I focus on in this chapter are those that happen in the “kill zone” of the head, neck, torso, pelvis, and the upper legs. Although some of these injuries are obvious, others are hidden below the surface and require your detective skills to identify real or potential harm based on the mechanism of injury.

Treating trauma victims is like managing patients with medical conditions (see Chapter 11 for an introduction to medical fundamentals). If the problem has something to do with the airway, breathing, or circulation, it has the potential to cause serious damage. That’s why you need to identify the most serious problem early and accurately. Don’t be distracted by the minor injuries, even when they may be the most obvious or cause the most pain. In this chapter the focus is on the key elements of good trauma management: determining the mechanism of injury, identifying real or potentially critical injuries, managing them quickly, and beginning transport to the nearest trauma center if necessary.

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