First aid

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Few of us have remained untouched by the work of the Red Cross. The Red Cross collects, tests, and distributes six million units of donated blood each year, nearly half the Nation's supply. More than 1,300 Red Cross chapters in communities across America teach health and safety courses to 12 million people each year, providing them with knowledge regarding CPR, first aid, water safety, and HIV/AIDS that can-and does-saves lives. ”

“ 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. ”

“ They are also teaching individuals what to do if an emergency strikes. Many firefighters who are also trained as paramedics and emergency medical technicians are helping to save lives by instructing citizens in first aid—including cardiopulmonary resuscitation. ”

“ I am going to give about eight lectures from the book and then have planned to write you for instructions. Dr. Blue has suggested that when candidates for license as masters, etc., be examined for their eye-sight and color blindness, that an examination in First Aid could be given them. This brings up the question as to how far the Red Cross and the various departments should work together and in my mind is the most important question before our organization today. ”

“ 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. ”

“ At home, the Red Cross' courses in lifesaving skills, first aid, CPR, and water safety, provide Americans with information they need to help maintain safe and healthy lives. Our communities also benefit from Red Cross programs that provide hot meals and transportation for the homebound, as well as housing and job training for the homeless. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ For more than 135 years, the American Red Cross has stepped into the breach, providing shelter, food, and emotional support to victims of natural disaster, war, conflict, and unexpected hardship. Today, the Red Cross is responsible for a remarkable 40 percent of our Nation's blood supply, teaches life-saving techniques to volunteer citizen-rescuers, and leads the world in international humanitarian aid. ”

“ One of the most cruel features in future battles will be the contrast between the great improvement in medical service, and the increasing difficulty, despite the Red Cross, of giving aid to the wounded.... ”

“ Such international cooperation in relief measures would not only bring the financial assistance that does so much to relieve the sufferings of the victims and gives them new courage because of the consciousness of brotherly sympathy the world over, but the experience and knowledge of each and all as to methods of relief after various kinds of calamities, such as fires, earthquakes, famines, floods, and epidemics, could be available for the benefit of those in need of such aid. ”

“ The names and reputation of the chiefs of the Sanitary Commission are sufficient guarantee that the funds thus raised will be applied to the purpose for which they were given, and many a poor soldier will have reason to bless the zeal of the energetic men and women who have so efficiently labored to soothe suffering and furnish to the sick and wounded the very best aid their country can offer. ”

“ Hence we are willing at all times to aid in the relief of those who are in need, distress, or suffering, regardless of the danger in which we may be placed in bringing such relief, or of the cost which may be involved in the same. We are ready to render such service in time of war as well as in time of peace. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If the ladies of the Soldiers’ Aid Societies and other benevolent organizations could have seen even the quantity which I have seen with my own eyes distributed, and the smile of gratitude with which those supplies are welcomed by the sufferers, they would think that they were amply rewarded for all their labor in preparing them. ”

“ Two groups of dedicated Americans provide this kind of medical care: emergency department personnel, who provide care in trauma centers, and emergency medical technicians and paramedics, most of them volunteers, who provide prehospital emergency care.
These emergency medical personnel throughout our Nation are specialists trained to handle illnesses and injuries which threaten life or limb. They must be available daily on a 24-hour basis to all patients who need medical aid. The efforts of these trained men and women have saved thousands of lives. ”

“ Now, we have obligated and pledged ourselves together not to let any sick or other disabled person suffer for the want of necessary attention, and the only thing we require of you is, if any other person should move into the country and locate, and should be taken down and confined through sickness or any other cause, that you help in furnishing such aid and [Pg 14] necessaries as they may need until they are able to again take care of themselves. ”

“ These efforts include supporting our military and their families, collecting and distributing blood, helping the needy, delivering health and safety education, and providing aid abroad. In every response, volunteers are the key to Red Cross efforts. ”

“ On the East side numbers of bodies were taken into the adjoining houses, where all the assistance which medical skill, humane attention, in short all the aid which humanity would teach everyone to offer, was brought to bear. ”

“ The Red Cross is in each country an organization recognized by the respective Governments for the purpose of rendering aid to the medical services or armies in time of war, and, furthermore, to mitigate the suffering caused by great calamities, and to devise and carry on means for preventing the same. ”

“ Nor would I wish any one to assume that I am deprecating by inference or by frontal attack the very fine things that are being accomplished every day by fine American women and girls who answered the first call for trained helpers, to serve in hospitals or canteens or huts, in settlement work or at telephone exchanges. It will make any American thrill with pride to enter a ward where the American Red Cross is in charge, or where a medical unit from one of the great hospitals or one of our great universities back home has control. ”

“ We clean 'em up, give them help and something to live for. We have already established hospitals, schools and nurseries in —— and —— and our ambulances and 'traveling baths' go out daily to give aid to the less needy in the neighborhood. ”

“ In the United States it turned the activities of the Red Cross Institute for Crippled and Disabled Men to war service and carried on schools for the training of those who wished to aid in the treatment by vocational therapy of wounded convalescents. ”

“ The Commission, looking at the hospitals and the armies from a different point of view, sees much that another overlooks, and in an emergency, when all help is too little, brings fresh aid that is a priceless blessing. ”

“ The members of that order are pledged to assist the Grand Army of the Republic in works of charity, to extend needful aid to members in sickness and distress, to aid sick soldiers, sailors and marines, to look after soldiers' orphan's homes, to see that the children obtain proper situations when they leave the homes, to watch the schools, and see to it that the children receive proper education in the history of the country and in patriotism. She has secured many pensions for soldiers and in countless ways worked for the good of the survivors of the war. ”

“ In the thousands of cases annually reported of Providence interposing his aid to save some reckless mariners, or some heedless passengers on a pleasure-boat, from a watery grave, or rescuing a few persons from the wreck of a railroad bridge, or some similar calamity, the disasters might all have been avoided by Providence simply acting upon the wisdom of the proverb, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." ”

“ Last year, the Red Cross rushed immediate medical aid and other needed items to countries devastated by natural disasters, and it helped millions of people around the world to battle malnutrition and life-threatening diseases and gain access to safe drinking water. ”

“ But the scope of its service extends well beyond the provision of emergency care. Its broader mission is clear: to promote compassion, to foster a spirit of generosity, and to improve the human condition everywhere. ”

“ To relieve the necessities in every way possible, keep the people at large in possession of reliable information, hold the field until relief has been given, and retire when all needed aid has been rendered. ”

“ And so, in the interest of making effective our generous impulses, in the interest of saving just as many as we can—facing an impossible task in size, and yet seeking to save life and alleviate pain and suffering just as far as we can—the concentration of our efforts through the Red Cross, which has both a national and an international status and is managed and conducted by men of large affairs and great experience with this sort of thing, seems to be essentially demanded. ”

“ To secure medical aid any hospital fund may independently, or in conjunction with other local funds, organize and maintain its own ambulatories, hospitals, etc., as well as enter into agreements with individual physicians and establishments. ”