People Have Different Pain Thresholds

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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.