Five minute medic: Fracture
Post categories: five minute medic,Ìýhealth
| 19:32 UK time, Monday, 2 November 2009
Slips and trips are among the most common household accidents and every year around 400,000 of them result in trips to A&E.
Elderly people are particularly prone to suffering broken bones during a fall and, in our film, Gwen Evans fractures her wrist after tripping over the vacuum cleaner cable.
The Five Minute Medic took to the streets of Abergavenny, to see whether people there would know how to help someone who had suffered a broken wrist.
Ideas included giving the patient a glass of water, cooling the wrist with frozen peas and giving the injured person painkillers.
But although the most popular suggestion was to bandage the broken arm or put it in a sling, when it came to putting their advice into practice, people seemed to be getting into quite a tangle.
So we decided to get some professional help from Ana Kimche, an emergency nurse practitioner at Abergavenny's Nevill Hall Hospital.
Ana explained that not all breaks are easily spotted. While a severe fracture might cause a lump or deformity, she said others are much more subtle. But, she said, if you are in a lot of pain even after taking painkillers, there may well be a break and you will need to get to A&E for an x-ray.
She gave us these top tips for dealing with a suspected fracture:
If you are wearing rings or bracelets try to take them off immediately. Otherwise, if the limb swells, they might cut off the circulation and the jewellery would need to be cut off.
Don't be afraid to give the casualty the painkillers they would usually take, for example paracetamol.
But the patient should swallow them with as little water as possible, and not have anything else to eat or drink until after a professional has confirmed they won't need an anaesthetic.
To reduce the casualty's pain, support the arm, either using a sling, or improvising using a scarf. If you have nothing to hand, get the patient to support the arm themselves, using their other hand.
To tie a sling correctly, ask the person to hold their arm across their chest, supporting the arm while you work. Put the corner of the bandage under their elbow, and bring it up around the back of the neck. Then, bring the other side of the bandage over the arm and tie the two ends into a knot behind the shoulder.
Even a small slip or trip can cause a nasty injury. But at any age, knowing how to help can make a real difference.
