Introduction

Emergency conditions are those that threaten a person’s life, limbs or eyesight. These are common conditions in every community all over the world. They can result in disability and death if they are not properly and urgently treated. Learning about these emergencies enables you to improve the outcome of life-supportive care, i.e. care that prevents death and reduces the risk of long-term disability in an individual who has suffered a life-threatening emergency. Note also that effective life-supportive care also protects the person’s family and his or her community from the socio-economic consequences of loss of life, limb or eyesight. These adverse outcomes reduce or destroy the productivity of the individual and affect their ability to care for their family and contribute to the community at large.

In this study session you will learn about common injury-related emergencies, how they occur, how to detect these conditions, and how to give basic life-supportive care to an injured person. You will also learn how to transfer a patient with these emergencies to a higher-level health facility for more complete specialist care. The emergencies to be covered in this session are acute injury and bleeding caused by violence, fractures, head and spinal injury, burns and multiple injuries.