When a surgeon's services are available, however, self-treatment is
attended with too much danger, as a thorough opening up of such wounds
with proper cleansing and drainage will afford a better prospect of
early recovery, and avert the risk of serious inflammation and
lockjaw, which sometimes follow punctured wounds of the hands and
feet. Foreign bodies, as splinters, may be removed with tweezers or a
needle, being careful not to break the splinter in the attempt. If a
part remains in the flesh, or if the foreign body is a needle that
cannot be found or removed at once, the continuous application of a
hot flaxseed or other poultice will lead to the formation of "matter,"
with which the splinter or needle will often escape after a few days.
Splinters finding their way under the nail may be removed by scraping
the nail very thin over the splinter and splitting it with a sharp
knife down to the point where the end of the splinter can be grasped.
=BLEEDING IN FORM OF OOZING.=
_First Aid Rule 1.--Apply water as hot as hand can bear._
_Rule 2.--Elevate the part, and drench with carbolic solution (one
teaspoonful of carbolic acid to one pint of hot water)._
_Rule 3.--Bandage snugly while wet._
_Rule 4.--Keep patient warm with hot-water bottles._
=GENERAL OOZING= happens in the case of small wounds or from abraded
surfaces, and is caused by the breaking of numerous minute vessels
which are not large enough to require the treatment recommended for
large arteries or veins. It is rarely dangerous, and usually stops
spontaneously. When the loss of blood has been considerable, so that
the patient is pale, faint, and generally relaxed, with cold skin, and
perhaps nausea and vomiting, he should be stripped of all clothing and
immediately wrapped in a blanket wrung out of hot water, and then
covered with dry blankets. Heat should also be applied to the feet by
means of hot-water bags or bottles, with great care not to burn a
semiconscious patient's skin. The head should be kept low, and two
tablespoonfuls of brandy, whisky, or other alcoholic liquor should be
given in a half cup of hot water by the mouth, if the patient can
swallow. If much blood has been lost a quart of water, as hot as the
hand can readily bear, and containing a teaspoonful of common salt,
should be injected by means of a fountain syringe into the rectum.
Somewhat the condition just described as due to loss of blood may be
caused simply by shock to the nervous system following any severe
accident, and not attended by bleeding. The treatment of shock is,
however, practically the same as that for hemorrhage, and improvement
in either case is shown by return of color to the face and strength in
the pulse. Bleeding is apt to be much less in badly torn than in
incised wounds, even if large vessels are severed, as when the legs
are cut off in railroad accidents, for the lacerated ends of the
vessels become entangled with blood and favor clotting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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