If you come across an accident, you can tell by the mechanism of the accident whether they have been hit head on or their heads hit the windshield or the steering wheel bent or - you can tell pretty much if an accident was really bad or not. You want to stabilize and make sure that they are not moving. Keep them in the car unless the car is - the situation is hazardous. But keep them in the car because you want to have trained paramedics who know how to extract somebody of a car or stabilize them and get them on a proper backboard and mobilize the back and all that.
Most people when they come across an accident or if they see one happening, they will dial 911 immediately, and say there has been an accident at this location, that will get the ball rolling as far as the emergency crew coming to the scene and fire standards will usually go to the scene and assess and make sure that everybody is okay.
When you come across an accident, we call them the ABCs, and the ABCs are airway, breathing and circulation. And the most important thing for a person is their airway, to make sure their airway is intact. Think of your airway as a tube and if that tube is obstructed in any way then obviously the person is not going to be able to breathe.
So it's just a quick look to make sure that they don't have a foreign object. If they were chewing on a piece of food and it got stuck in their throat or if they have a lot of fluid or blood, obviously they are not going to be able to breathe past that.
So that's just a real quick. The first thing you want to look at, make sure their airway is okay. And once you have assessed that you want to make sure that they are breathing, and if they are not breathing then obviously somebody that knows CPR will start breathing for them.
CPR classes are provided at the hospitals, but you can also go to your YMCA, or call your Red Cross and you can take the basic life support class. And then circulation of the - it's the third one, and circulation obviously is checking the pulse and making sure that the heart is beating.
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