First-aid kit
pressure and clean cloth for bleeding, boiled water to wash wounds, splints and slings for breaks
AWhat it needs
Needs 10 other products in all, 2 of them directly.
- 01.24 First-aid kitHealth Year 1 needs 10 products
- 01.05 Twisted plant-fibre cordMaking Year 1 needs 2 products
- 01.03 Sharp stone flakeMaking Year 1 needs 1 product
- 01.02 HammerstoneMaking Year 1 raw materials only
- 01.14 Hot-stone boiling pitHome Year 1 needs 9 products
- 01.04 Digging stickMaking Year 1 needs 2 products
- 01.08 First fire and stone hearthMaking Year 1 needs 5 products
- 01.06 Tinder and kindling storeMaking Year 1 raw materials only
- 01.07 Bow-drill fire setMaking Year 1 needs 3 products
- 01.12 Bamboo cups and water tubesMaking Year 1 needs 2 products
- 01.13 Split-stick tongsMaking Year 1 needs 3 products
Open a box to see what it needs. A dashed box is a product already drawn in full: click it to jump there. In the org chart, drag to move around.
BWhy
With stone blades, fire and heavy loads, someone will be hurt in the first week. Most early deaths from injury come from three things that can be handled with almost nothing: bleeding, dirt in a wound, and a broken limb that is moved.
CYou need
DSteps
- Bleeding: press the cleanest cloth straight onto the wound, hard, and raise the limb. Hold for a slow count of six hundred without lifting to look. If blood soaks through, add more cloth on top.
- Only if a limb is pumping blood and pressure fails: tie a wide strip round the limb above the wound and twist it tight with a stick. This is a last resort to save a life.
- Washing: flush every wound with a great deal of cooled boiled water, poured from a height. Pick out dirt. Dirt left in a wound is what kills.
- Small clean cuts can be drawn together with thin strips. Deep, dirty or puncture wounds are left open to drain, and only covered.
- Cover with boiled cloth. Change it every day and wash the wound again each time.
- Burns: cool in clean cold water for about twenty minutes, then cover loosely. Put nothing greasy on a burn.
- Breaks: do not move the person until the limb is splinted. Pad two sticks, lay one on each side, and tie them above and below the break, never over it. The joints on both sides of the break must not be able to move.
- A broken arm goes in a sling: a wide strip round the neck holding the forearm level across the chest.
- After any splint, check the fingers or toes. They must stay warm and pink. If they turn cold or blue, loosen the ties.
- Anyone pale, cold and faint after an injury lies down with legs raised, is kept warm, and is given sips of boiled water.
- Teach all 24 the three rules: press, wash, splint.
EIt worked if
- Any person in the camp can stop a bleed, wash a wound and splint an arm without being told how.
- A week after a cut, it is closing and the skin round it is not hot.
FWhat goes wrong
- The wound turns hot, red and swollen, or weeps. It is infected. Open it, wash it out again, let it drain, rest the limb and keep the person drinking.
- A red line creeping up the limb, or a fever. The infection is spreading. This is the healer's most serious case: rest, washing, warmth and fluids are all there is, for now.
- The cloth sticks to the wound. Soak it off with boiled water; never tear it away.
- The kit is empty when needed. Whoever uses it tells the healer the same day.
GSafety
- Wash your own hands with ash and water before and after touching a wound.
- A tight tie left on a limb too long kills the limb. Loosen it as soon as the bleeding can be held by pressure.
HIn the story
Hiro's thumb on the first day, Sofia's burnt fingers on the second: by the third, Grace has seen enough. She cuts the hem off her own shirt first, then holds out the blade to the others without a word. Adam, who has splinted strangers on mountainsides, teaches the splint. Grace teaches the washing, and makes every one of them do it in front of her.