What To Do When Someone Loses Consciousness
A person becomes unconscious when they cannot respond to people, events, or stimuli around them. Many factors can come into play as to why a person loses consciousness. For example, it can be for dietary reasons, low blood sugar, dehydration, blood pressure, oxygen, deficiency, blood loss, head injuries, and many other factors.
When a person loses consciousness, the first thing you should do is to check if they’re still breathing and loosen constrictive clothing. If the person is not breathing, call out to the person loudly, and if the person is not responsive, get ready to begin CPR. Then, call or have someone call the emergency services near you.
CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. It has saved many lives because it greatly helps people when they stop breathing or their heart stops beating. A trained person can perform CPR, but if you haven’t been trained in CPR, perform chest compressions, known as hands-only CPR.
To perform chest compressions:
- Ensure the person is lying on their back on a firm surface.
- Kneel next to the person near their neck and shoulders
- For an adult, interlock your fingers and place your hands on their chest. For a child, directly in the center of the chest, place one hand. For an infant, place only two fingers on the chest just below the breast line of the infant
- Push down on the 2 inches for the adult and1.5 inches for an infant using your upper body weight
- Repeat 100 x per minute
- Don’t stop until you are sure help has arrived or if the person regains consciousness
- Once they’re awake, place them on their side.