Many
people have the idea if a person has a broken leg it would impossible
for them to walk. This is taught in most in most first aid training
courses. In most cases, this is true. There are a few considerations
a first aider should keep in mind when dealing with an injured
person. The following are some situations where people may be able to
walk with broken bones or their injuries may be more serious than
they first appear to be. In my online first aid course we
demonstrated a person walking with a broken ankle.
Severity of the break
Obviously,
if the break is severe, the affected limb will not be able to
function. You cannot stand on your femur (thighbone) if it’s been
broken completely through in several pieces. If it is just a small
crack in the bone, the person may be able to walk. They will be in
pain, but it’s possible they may be able to walk.
High
Pain Threshold
Some
people can handle pain better than others. Some people may receive an
injury where they almost pass out from the pain. The injury could be
quite minor. Another person may receive a serious injury and be able
to handle it quite well. An example is a 9 year old boy we attended.
His sister and him were playing in the clothes dryer in the basement
of the house. Mom was upstairs. His sister hit the on switch. For
some reason, the dryer turned started with his leg in it. This isn’t
supposed to happen, but it did. His femur was fractured. There was
not one tear from this brave little guy.
We also
attended a 30 year old 250 lb guy who fell off the back of the pickup
truck while putting his motorcycle on. Exactly the same kind of
break the little boy had. This guy screamed, howled, swore and cried
all the way to the hospital.
Different
people can have different pain thresholds.
Drugs
and Alcohol
Many
people have woken up with injuries after a night of partying. They
may have received some painful injuries which, at the time, they
didn’t really feel the pain like they normally would have. Drugs
and alcohol can mask the pain from injuries. The expression “the
person wasn’t feeling any pain” when they are intoxicated does
have some truth to it.
It’s
because of this that some people trained in first aid don’t realize
the person may be injured more seriously than first thought.
Head
Injuries
If a
person has received a blow to the head, the pain him or her normally
felt may be reduced. Here’s what I mean. As a paramedic we attended
a fifteen year old boy who was involved in a head on collision with a
pickup truck. He was riding a scooter. As we pulled up with the
ambulance we noticed both arms and legs were flaying around. It was
obvious that each limb had multiple fractures. This clued us in there
may be more serious injuries. In the hospital the discovered the boy
had a lacerated liver and was in shock from blood loss. He also had a
serious head injury. These other injuries masked the pain of the
fractures. Normally, you wouldn’t attempt to move your limbs with
the fractures this kid had. It would hurt too much.
Shock
If a
person has lost a lot of blood from either internal or external
bleeding, their level of consciousness and their pain threshold can
be changed from a normal situation. The person may become confused
and not aware of what is happening. Shock can hide or reduce the
person’s reaction to pain and injuries.
As you
can see, in Calgary Standard first aid training , a person should be aware that there
could be more serious injuries than first appears. Keep this in mind
when treating any injured person.
