Nigerians need enlightenment on first aid treatment – Physician

A former chairman of the Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria, Lagos Chapter, Dr. Tunji Akintade, has call for better education of Nigerians on how they can help save the life before medical personnel attends to them.

According to the physician, there are things first responders can do that can help ensure gunshot victims are kept stable and alive until they can receive proper treatment.

“people should be educated on how to know and arrest the source of bleeding, stressing that this is crucial to preventing the patient from going into hypovolemic shock.”

Hypovolemic shock is an emergency condition in which severe blood or other fluid loss makes the heart unable to pump enough blood to the body. This type of shock can cause many organs to stop working.

Dr. Akintade said, “First responders must ensure that the bleeding is arrested to avoid the patient going into hypovolemic shock because whatever the case may be, there is needs to keep the patient alive until he can be properly treated by a doctor.”

Akintade’s call for better education of first responders was as a result of the attack on worshippers by gunmen at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Owa-luwa Street in Owo Town on Sunday, during which many people were killed.

Several people also sustained gunshot injuries and were first attended to by first responders before the arrival of medical personnel.

According to him, once a gunshot victim is stable, the first line of call is to report the case to the police, this is to avoid being tagged and identified as a co-conspirator.

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