. Chances are, at some time you will have to help another person in distress. Effective actions are based on pre-emergency planning and training.
As you approach the scene, review what to do, who to call for help and how to contact help. If outside of your home, do you know that address of where the emergency is? IS the scene safe for you to assist the victim? Do you have a First Aid Kit or CPR Mask? How many victims are injured?
When you are the first to arrive at an incident scene, do a 10 second scene survey. is the scene safe? Remember you cannot help if you become a victim.   After you determine the scene is safe, try to determine the cause of the injuries. The mechanism of an injury may help you to determine its extent or suspect hidden injuries.  
 Let’s take a look at the Mechanism of injury.  Consideration of the mechanism of injury will help you understand the injury and predict its severity.   Most injuries involve and impact between a moving object and another moving object or stationary object. 
At the scenes try to reconstruct the event? Was this a fall and if so, How far did they fall? How did the victim land? Are internal injuries likely? Is spinal injury likely?
We will look at how to treat various injuries in future blogs. This blog is to get the rescuer to think about the scene and the patient. Knowing your surroundings and the conditions of where you are is very important to keeping you safe and allowing proper care of the victim. 
If you have any questions feel free to contact any of the East-West Safety staff and we will be glad to answer any questions you may have