Emergency Irrigation
A terrible car accident occurs in front of you. While another person calls for emergency assistance on her cell phone, you realize that people need help immediately.
One person has a terrible cut on the leg, and she says glass from her windshield is caught in the wound. She is too close to passing out, and there’s too much blood to see where there is glass. You need to irrigate the wound before you can hope to compress the bleeding, of course, but emergency equipment is many minutes away.
“Does anyone have a bottle of water?” you ask.
A nearby driver produces a twenty-ounce bottle of drinking water. Using a knife, you puncture a small hole in the bottom of the bottle. Turning it right side up, you crack the seal on the cap...
...and a stream of water begins to jet away the blood and road grime on her gash. You see a piece of glass, and with your knife, you flick it out of the wound. You tighten the cap, and the stream stops.
Blood begins to refill the gash, so you twist the bottle cap and wash away the blood. More glass: you quickly get another two or three pieces out.
“I need another bottle.” An uninjured driver asks around, and within seconds you have another twenty ounce bottle. In less than five seconds, you have another irrigating jet of water from this bottle washing away the blood and dirt from the wound.
The wound looks clear of glass and dirt. You twist the cap shut, place the bottle upside-down on its cap in the event someone else needs it, and dig through your car’s first-aid kit to find the tape and gauze to compress her wound.