Sheikh Iraj

First aid is a term we are all familiar with. However, although we know the word, not all of us have a good idea about its importance. First aid is the assistance given to any person suffering a sudden illness or injury, with care provided to preserve life, prevent the condition from worsening, and/or promote recovery, says Google. Even if you don’t know what first aid actually is, it is most likely that you have performed it on yourself or others. For example, applying antiseptic to a cut or holding ice over a bruise _ these are some of the simple everyday first aid tasks we perform knowingly or otherwise. More importantly though, first aid can turn out to be a major factor between life and death. One simply does not have to be a doctor to know the basics of first aid. Rather, even a little information on it is important and its basics know-how can help you and others more than you can imagine. This week, Y&I talked to some experts, students, teachers and other people who have to deal with first aid.

Nahid Hossain, Student

I am university student now and when I was in school, I had no idea what first aid is. One day, my mother burned her finger while cooking, she wanted to use toothpaste on the burn. Then to all of our surprise, my younger brother, who was in school, spoke out and said it was better to use antiseptic, as toothpaste was not going to help. I didn’t give much importance to that at the time. Later, my brother told us that a workshop on first aid was held in their school and he came to know about it from there. I felt a little awkward for not knowing that, but I was happy that someone from my family knew about first aid. So soon enough we brought a first aid box. I am a member of our university travel club and I go on tours during any break I get. I always carry a small portable first aid box with me. It comes in handy  during most of the tours we take. Looking at this, my friends have also made their own portable first aid boxes.

Syed Md Shoyb, Teacher

I teach at the Jahanabad Government Primary School. When I first started teaching, I didn’t have much idea about first aid. One day, one of my students was playing in our school field and accidentally fell on the ground. We all ran to him and thought nothing had happened, but later we found that his arm was fractured. He was not able to write, and we thought he won’t be able to sit for the exams that summer. I felt sorry for him and angry at myself for not being able to identify his fracture in the first place. Of course, we took his oral tests and he was very happy for that. Later, I decided to learn about first aid. I am a teacher and I do not always get that amount of extra time where I can attend classes, so I started reading books on first aid. Soon, a training workshop was conducted in our school and I attended that. Now, I am confident that I will at least be of some help to others when they need first aid.   
Abdul Razak, Pharmacy owner

I am associated with the pharmaceutical business for quite sometime now. I started out when I was a student, working for another drugstore. Almost every day, I have to face a number of patients who require first aid. From smalls cuts to deep burns to heart attack, we face them all. Let me share a story. One night, I was sleeping at home when suddenly, I was awakened by my neighbour. Apparently, an elderly person in their family had become very sick. I went to their house and found that they did not understand that the elderly person had suffered a heart attack. I quickly gave him some blood thinners, which gave him some time before we reached the hospital. Later, he recovered and now, he often comes to my shop for a friendly chat. I didn’t attend any course on first aid, I just read a book on first aid and that’s how simple it is. I really hope that young people like me would show more interest in learning about first aid.

Sikder Mokaddes Ahmed
Director, Youth and Voluntary Department, Bangladesh Red Crescent Society

Since 2009, the government has taken the initiative to have at least one Red Crescent youth unit in all schools under 10 education boards of our country. So far, we have trained  more than eight lakh students and teachers about first aid. I believe every house should have a first aid box and it only costs around Taka two to three thousand. We have 3,500 core volunteers and 1,800 community volunteers. All of our staff are trained in first aid. Every month, we organise two open training programmes, which are open to all. Again, if someone wants to learn first aid individually they can come to us. Many students who have just graduated or are going abroad come here and learn first aid. But one has to have at least 16 hours of training to get a certificate from us. In the last six years or so, we have conducted training in more than 14,000 different educational institutions throughout the country. We believe community helps society, and by teaching our communities about first aid is only going to help us all. We teach about basic first aid, for example, how to care for a simple cut, or aid a drowning victim. In some drowning cases, we need to perform CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), while in some cases helping the person breathe by lying him or her on the chest can prove to be equally important. The main thing is you need to know how to perform it and we regularly teach students that particular exercise.

Most of the snakes in our country are non-venomous; you can identify that by looking at the bite mark. If the bite mark is straight with no sign of an angle to it, then it’s a non-venomous snake. In the case of a snake bite, many people try to stop the blood from flowing by firmly wrapping something just above the bitten area, which is wrong. It can be more dangerous in case of a non-venomous snake. I am little doubtful about the facilities or antivenins we have in our hospitals to treat  venomous snake bites. Most people suffer more from the fear and in a situation like that, one needs to help the affected to calm down and wash the bitten place with soap, and take the person to the nearest medical centre. I think we need to spread the know-how of first aid among the people more, so they can help themselves and others in case of emergencies.

Muhammad Zahidur Rahim
NPO-EHA programme, WHO Bangladesh

First aid simply means basic treatment before going to any medical facility for help. You, I or anyone can learn first aid, it’s not that complicated. However, the fact remains that not all of us understand its importance and hence, give very little thought on the matter. We work with the government to offer our support to them. From time to time, under different projects, we distribute first aid boxes in places where it’s more urgent. We also give training to hospital staff and show them video clips on first aid. Every year, so many children in our country die from drowning, or lose an arm or a leg from a simple cut, which can be easily avoided by applying first aid. I believe we should give more value to first aid for our own sake and for the sake of our loved ones.

Md Nuhul Amin Chowdhury
Assistant Director (Planning and Development), Directorate of Primary Education  

Like many other countries in the world, in our country it is mandatory for all government primary schools to have a first aid box. Every year a lot of young people suffer greatly or even die just because they were not given first aid. The government has come to understand this fact and is working to create more awareness about first aid. We are working with some unique plans to make that happen, for example, we are planning to have a health room in every government school. By having a health room, teachers and students will have more interest towards first aid. Besides our different health programmes, we train teachers about first aid on a regular basis. So far, we have trained 80 thousand teachers throughout the country. From a statistical point of view, 52.2 per cent of our total population consists of youths and many of them are still in school, college or university. The youth can play a major role to make first aid more popular. I would like to urge teachers and students to realise the importance of first aid.

Photos: Courtesy