Burns are common and may happen anytime and anywhere. How do we treat a burn? How much care does it
require? Well, let me tell you that
there are different degrees of burns, but the most common in the business
industry is the chemical burn.
Chemical burn may have various causes and the burn itself
may either be mild or severe. But how do
we apply first aid with this kind of injury?
First and foremost is to stay calm before taking any further actions. Following are the steps on how to apply first
aid on chemical burn:
- Keep your self away from the place, and if it’s dangerous, don’t let anyone enter the location.
- If there’s still chemicals on the affected area, brush off the remnants away from you, be gentle and do it in one direction.
- After brushing off the chemicals left on skin, flush your skin with cool running water for 15-45 minutes until the pain gradually fades.
- If you are wearing accessories when you acquired the injury, remove them for there may be harmful substances left.
- Before wrapping with burn dressings, make sure to dry the skin around the affected area to prevent the burn from bacteria.
- Ask someone’s help in wrapping with burn dressings, wrapping should be quite fast. Prolonged exposure of the affected area may cause infection.
- Right after wrapping the affected area, seek professional help.
Your burn dressings should be sterile and non-adherent. Ideally, it should be impregnated with a
water soluble gel which cools the affected area, relieving the burn while it
minimizes burn creep. One more thing,
your dressings should be with antimicrobial action and a cooling relief for up
to two hours, to lessen the burning sensation until you obtain professional
help.
Applying first aid to burns is no easy. Always seek professional help right after
applying first aid, for they know the best kind of treatment your injury needs. Bear in mind that keeping your self calm is a
great help in applying the first aid treatment.
