How to Treat a Victim in Shock

Chip Meyers: Hi! I am Chip Meyers; I am paramedic with the City of Alexandria Fire Department in Alexandria, Virginia. Next, we are going to talk about treating somebody who is suffering from shock. Shock can come on from many different problems, could be a heart failure, could be allergic reaction, could be uncontrolled bleeding. If you find somebody going into shock, the first thing you want to do is you want to lay them on the ground. So here we have Josh who is suffering from shock. Some of the signs and symptoms you'll notice is that he is pale, moist skin, it might also be kind of dizzy, difficult to arouse. What we do is we elevate the legs several inches to help stabilize the blood pressure; then we want to cover the body with the blanket. So when you elevate the legs, you want to elevate the legs at least 12 inches. That way you get the blood flow down to the center of the chest and in the torso. Now, if the person starts to throw up or lose consciousness, you might want to roll them onto the sideward safe. So you lower the legs to the ground and you rotate them onto their side. Monitor their airway and make sure that they don't choke. Those are some of the steps that you can use to help somebody else who is suffering from shock.

Next, we are going to talk about what to do for someone who is suffering from a broken bone in the upper arm.