First aid station

“ Temporary shelters had been rigged up with corrugated iron all along the platform, at the end of which was a wooden Red Cross dressing-station.
These dressing-stations have been set up at every station, however small, all along the line between the German frontier and the front, and form a striking example of German organisation and efficiency. They consist of two small rooms, one of which can be used as an operating-room, and is stocked with first-aid appliances and a small pharmacy. The whole building can be taken down and set up elsewhere in a very short time. ”

“ It has been in existence thirty years, and its object is to provide assistance to the victims of accidents of public calamities and epidemics. This society, in time of war, will place its litter bearers at the disposition of the Red Cross. The French Society of Secouristes, composed of volunteer men nurses, whose object is to install emergency first-aid stations in Paris and other large cities, has asked for a like affiliation for the purpose of placing its 1,000 trained men at the disposal of the Red Cross in time of war. ”

“ After first aid has been administered, and when there are enough for a load, or there is a serious case, the car goes to the triage, stopping at the relay station, from which a car is sent to the poste to replace the first, which returns to the relay station directly from the hospital.
The hospitals also are divided into two main classes, the triages, or front hospitals in the zone of fire, and the H.O.E.’s, hospitals of evacuation, anywhere back of the fines. The hospital of evacuation is the third of the four stages through which a wounded man passes. ”

“ Every automobile in the city was pressed into service and used to meet paths and take the refugees at once to the hospitals.49
"Our greatest need is a dozen motor boats and men to run them," was the message contained in an appeal sent out by Mr. Patterson. Skiffs and rowboats could not live in torrents rushing through the city's principal streets.
The big plant of the National Cash Register Company was made relief headquarters. As persons were rescued they were taken to a relief sub-station, where their names were recorded and they received first aid. ”

“ Statisticians say that, when war claims a victim, accident takes four victims.”
It is estimated that 100,000 fatal accidents occur annually in the United States, and 500,000 accidents occur that render the victims incapable of earning their own living. Hundreds of thousands are being trained in first aid classes; and likewise many hundreds of thousands of victims of accidents on the railways, in the factories, and on the farms, are receiving the benefits of first aid assistance. ”

“ People would have to help each other during the emergency. Those in a stocked public fallout shelter would have available the basic medical kit stored there, and perhaps one or more shelter occupants might be a doctor, nurse, or trained first-aider. But persons in a home shelter would have only the medical supplies available at home, and would have to depend on their own knowledge of first aid and emergency medical care. ”

“ The other branch of the department will undertake the formation of first aid emergency classes in every city in the country. Ambulance corps will be formed among the employees of mills and factories, industrial corporations, railroad employees, the police, and employees of public departments. These employees will be drilled and instructed in first aid methods, and, apart from the value of the knowledge they will obtain for local use and service, they will form an efficient force to draw from as helpers in great national calamities. ”

“ In time of war they are controlled by the War Office and Admiralty. The Red Cross had, since 1909, organized Voluntary Aid Detachments to give voluntary aid to the sick and wounded in the event of war in home territory. There were 60,000 men and women trained in transport work, cooking, [pg 56] laundry, first aid and home nursing. St. John's ambulance had the same system of ambulance workers and V.A.D.'s to call on. ”

“ Unlike France and Germany, we have no line of communication by which the victims of war can be passed from the fighting line to safety in the hospital far in the rear. The Red Cross Society and the English people are now asked to meet the want. The scheme is so to train the inhabitants of our towns and villages that they can render first aid after a battle, convey the wounded to the nearest hospital, and forward them on through a chain of similar units from rest house to rest house till the base hospital is reached. ”

“ Last year it provided more than 700,000 emergency and personal services for military personnel and their families, including relaying messages from their families to the three American servicemen held captive by Yugoslav forces. And in communities across the Nation, more than 12 million people received Red Cross instruction in lifesaving techniques last year, ranging from first aid and CPR to water safety and boat handling. ”

“ Under the Inaugural Committee a sub-committee on Public Comfort has heretofore taken entire charge of such emergency cases as have arisen, but a need was felt for a number of well-equipped relief stations with a competent personnel to act in co-operation with the physicians of the city. The American Red Cross offered its services, which, having been accepted, it immediately began its work of preparation. A relief column with thirty-six members, many of whom were medical students, devoted two months to weekly instructions in First Aid and hospital drill. ”

“ It is a relief to get back in the evenings to the society of the nurses. Many of them already look knocked up. "Fifty patients on my floor, and only two orderlies," says one. And at home thousands of trained workers are waiting for work.
We often wonder that no use is made of the members of the Voluntary Aid Detachments as probationers under the trained nurses. True, in their present stage of efficiency (or inefficiency, for what are a number of first-aid lectures or stretcher drills as compared with the real hospital training?) ”

“ The services performed by the Red Cross provide us with benefits that would otherwise cost billions of dollars. Last year, it was the volunteer who-giving freely of his or her time, energy, and talent-made it possible for the Red Cross to collect and provide the ill and injured with nearly six million units of blood. Volunteers established shelters to feed and attend to disaster victims, conducted thousands of courses to improve the quality of life by teaching nutrition, first aid, water safety, home nursing, and preparation for parenthood. ”

“ Such a health center may include a hospital with well equipped laboratories and clinical facilities, or it may be nothing more than a room in a small village, equipped with scales for weighing children, with first aid kits for accident cases, and used for occasional clinics for the examination of babies and children of pre-school age and for classes in home nursing or first aid; but every community of any size should have some place which will be a headquarters for its local health Service, equipped as may be most practicable to meet its needs, according to the size of the community. ”

“ The American ambulance was no longer favored on its trips to the front, pointed preference being given the English and French Red Cross Emergency Corps. This resulted in few wounded being taken to the Arabella, as the Americans confined their work largely to assisting the injured on the field of battle. The girls were not to be daunted in their determined efforts to aid the unfortunate and every day one of them visited the trenches to assist the two doctors in rendering first aid to the wounded. ”

“ The Red Cross serves members of the armed forces, their families and veterans through financial assistance, counselling and emergency communications. Thousands of disaster victims each year receive a variety of Red Cross services, including emergency food, shelter and clothing, first aid and medical help, replacement of occupational tools and other vital services. ”

“ Army conditions emphasize the necessity for the creation of organizations in order that first aid may be given with maximum efficiency. And there are many situations in civil life, such as vast concourses of people, great fires, railroad disasters, which equally demand first aid organizations instead of individuals, who, however well taught they may be, must, under such circumstances, work at cross purposes, unless they are united into a disciplined body in which the special duties of each are carefully defined. ”

“ As a source of field supplies, the Canadian Red Cross was a dependable dispenser which the military hospitals, dressing stations, and regimental aid posts always turned to for their requirements, knowing that what they needed was not only waiting to be forwarded at the first call for help, but would frequently be sent in anticipation of the need. ”

“ As fairest fruit attract the flies. Successful with her new organization, the Red Cross a few years later (in 1910) formed in its society a department to carry on relief as then carried on in Miss Barton’s new organization, the department being of like name—The First Aid Division. In her new field 303of humane service, Clara Barton expended from her personal funds about $5,000, besides five years of hard work, before she achieved success. ”

“ By offering health and safety training such as first aid, CPR, and aquatic lifesaving, and by facilitating the collection of millions of units of blood for donation, the Red Cross helps our country to handle emergencies.
Many of the essential services of the American Red Cross are provided by volunteers who give their time and energy to help fellow citizens in need. During Red Cross relief operations, these volunteers assess damages, drive emergency response vehicles to distribute food and other supplies to people, and shelter families who have been evacuated from their homes. ”

“ In-Unit Care The casualty estimates in the guide are presented with no allowance for in-unit care such as self-aid or buddy aid. Soldiers trained in first aid procedures may be the first to see chemical injuries. The guide can provide an estimate of the numbers of injured personnel who will require first aid. However, there may be need for rapid augmentation, support, or other intervention. Delays in obtaining medical care may occur because of physical damage or contamination of the surrounding area. ”

“ They also had employees who, although lay persons, had been trained and qualified to give emergency CPR and other forms of first aid at the work site. So why not someone in the shop or office who was basically trained in suicide prevention and crisis intervention? As with other on-site emergency services, this person, who would have been trained and qualified to recognize discernible and professionally recognized signs that might precede a suicide attempt, would consult with a supervisor, and exercise his/her judgment in getting the person-in-distress ASAP to professional help. ”

“ In civilian relief work in Belgium the American Red Cross placed its resources at the command of organizations already in the field to care for children and feeble persons, and get them away from the places of greatest danger. In order to have supplies ready at hand for emergencies twenty barrack warehouses were contracted for last Fall.
Special aid has been given to the schools and colonies for children. Establishment of health centres and a 250-bed hospital for the Belgian colony at Havre are among the other activities. ”

“ There is in general such a lack of adequate service for the wounded that to work with the Ambulance Corps and thus contribute one’s mite of helpfulness is almost a duty for any American who can spare even a few weeks of time. When one has seen thousands of wounded, as I saw them at the Battle of the Marne, lying for three and four days in the rain without food, drink, or any medical aid, one is irresistibly driven to do something to diminish such terrible suffering. Many young Americans are feeling the same impulse and volunteers for ambulance service are numerous. ”

“ Each ambulance is self-contained, having its own transport, and by using tents can work in an area which has no houses or other shelter.
The casualty clearing station, on the other hand, having an established capacity of nearly 600 beds, has much heavier equipment and is not supposed to be a mobile unit, though it is capable of moving with the aid of its two lorries by making repeated trips. Many of the casualty clearing stations are located in huts which can be torn down and moved forward and rebuilt by the engineers and construction units. ”

“ At the end of a sunken road, and protected by a low ridge not far from their position, a flying ambulance of first aid had been established, and its emissaries had begun to explore the plateau. A tent was quickly erected, while from the hospital van the attendants extracted the necessary supplies; compresses, bandages, linen, and the few indispensable instruments required for the hasty dressings they gave before dispatching the patients to Sedan, which they did as rapidly as they could secure wagons, the supply of which was limited. ”

“ In 2020, more than 70,000 people became new Red Cross volunteers and stepped up on behalf of those in need—as disaster shelter workers, health workers, blood donor ambassadors, and transportation specialists. And when our country faced a severe blood shortage, the American people rolled up their sleeves, with more than a half-million of our friends and neighbors donating blood with the Red Cross for the first time. ”

“ Organized in every State, the relief societies of the Red Cross would be ready with money, nurses, and supplies, to go on call to the instant relief of all who were overwhelmed by any of those sudden calamities which occasionally visit us. In case of yellow fever, there being an organization in every State, the nurses and attendants would be first chosen from the nearest societies, and, being acclimated, would incur far less risk to life than if sent from distant localities. ”