How to Conduct a Primary Survey of an Injured Person During First Aid

Video Transcript

"You know at some point in time anyone of us can encounter a person that goes down related to an injury or an illness of some type. Hi, I'm Captain Joe Bruni and what we're going to talk about is how to conduct a primary survey in a person that we find that is unconscious. We approach the patient, making sure that the scene is safe and that there are no other hazards around, if there are no other hazards, the first thing that we will do is determine whether the person is breathing by performing the ABC's. If a suspected spinal cord injury has occurred, do not move the head or use the head tilt method to do the ABC's. Do the modified jaw thrust of placing the fingers behind the jaws and pulling forward as we can go down and do our look, listen and feel to determine if the person is breathing. Looking for chest rise, listening and feeling with our cheek, for the exchange of air. After we do our ABC's, we check for circulation to determine if there is a heartbeat. If we have no heartbeat and no airway, we would begin the steps of CPR. If the person is breathing and they do still have a heart rate and we do still suspect the spinal cord injury, we would maintain control of the head and the spinal cord and then assess the patient for any type of bleeding that they may have. If they have some type of bleeding, addressing that bleeding would be the next step. I'm Captain Joe Bruni on how to conduct a primary survey. See you next time."