Recently, a two-year-old girl in Chongzhou, Chengdu, was bitten by a large dog, resulting in severe bites all over her body, contusion and laceration of her right kidney and rib fracture. As of October 18, she was still in a coma in the intensive care unit. This tragedy has aroused widespread concern throughout the country.At the same time, prepping checklist It is no longer a relatively unfamiliar industry, and it enters the public’s sight more and more frequently, gaining more attention and recognition. https://www.planbowl.com/
Although the police released the news afterwards, the vicious dog and its owner have been controlled, and the relevant parties will bear their due responsibilities, but this incident itself is a huge tragedy, which is heartbreaking!
Although the number of rabies cases in China has been decreasing year by year in recent years, it is still one of the countries with high rabies risk recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO), and the risk of dog injury is not far from each of us!
If you and your family are unfortunately bitten by dogs (or other animals), how should you deal with it urgently at the scene to minimize the damage?
Liu Lin, the attending physician in the emergency department of Chengdu Women and Children Central Hospital, used her clinical experience to help everyone sort out a “guide to emergency treatment of dog bites”, especially for children how to deal with and prevent dog bites. It must be collected and forwarded, but I hope you will never use it!
01
Harm of dog bite
Dog bites refer to skin damage, tissue tearing, bleeding and infection caused by dog teeth biting and cutting human tissues, which are not limited to dogs, but may also be other wild and stray animals with sharp teeth.
Common dog bites and their harm?
¢ In young children, the whole body may be injured, especially the head and neck.
In older children, adolescents and adults, dogs usually bite limbs, especially the dominant hand of the injured.
Dog bites can cause minor injuries (such as scratches and abrasions) and even serious injuries (such as open lacerations, deep stab wounds, tissue lacerations and crush injuries).
Some fierce dogs, such as Peter bull terrier, German Shepherd and Rottweiler, have strong jaw bite, so they are particularly prone to serious injuries and deep structural damage.
In addition to general purulent infection, dog bites can also cause special infections such as rabies, tetanus and gas gangrene. Severe can lead to complex and serious wounds and complications; It can also lead to damage to tissues and organs, physical disability and even death.
02
Being bitten by a dog
What should I do?
What should you do if you or your family are unfortunately attacked by a vicious dog, or if you happen to meet a dog attacking or biting others, the situation is very urgent and dangerous?
The following are some suggestions for emergency treatment, hoping to help you cope with this situation:
No matter whether you are bitten or others are being bitten, try to stay calm and don’t panic or shout.
Screaming or yelling may stimulate dogs to bite more fiercely, and staying calm can also help you make more informed decisions.
Don’t run away: Try to avoid running away. Running away may stimulate the dog’s hunting instinct, which may prompt the dog to catch up with you and aggravate the aggressive behavior.
3 Try not to violently attack dogs: using violent means such as smashing and stabbing with sharp tools to deal with dogs may irritate them and lead to more serious attacks.
Try to avoid direct contact: If the dog attacks others, please don’t pull the dog and the bitten person directly with your hands, which may lead to your injury. Try to use foreign objects, such as sticks and coats, and put them in front of dogs’ mouths to distract them. At this point, the cleaning aunt who came to help the child with a mop in Chongzhou dog bite incident was right:
⊥ Cover your body: When attacked by dogs, if possible, put your arms and palms in front of your body to protect important parts and minimize the risk of injury to key parts. Try to avoid exposing vulnerable parts such as neck, face and lower limbs.
6. Try to distract the dog: make regular calls, make some noise around with objects, or throw things near the dog, all of which can try to distract the dog from the bitten person.
∂ Ask for help: If anyone is present, ask them to call the emergency number immediately and ask the fire and rescue personnel to come.
03
On-site evaluation and treatment of dog bites
First, confirm whether the environment is safe.
After stopping the dog’s biting behavior, if you want to help the injured, you must first make sure that the scene is safe.
To ensure that the out-of-control dogs are driven away from the scene, don’t be busy moving the injured, and call the emergency number 119 and 120 for help immediately.
Evaluate the vital signs of the injured.
The life-threatening patients with dog bites should first stabilize their vital signs, and the key lies in maintaining airway patency and controlling bleeding.
(1) to ensure that the injured airway unobstructed.
Before the 120 emergency personnel arrive, you can check whether the airway of the injured person is clear and awake. If there is blood, oral and airway secretions or foreign bodies blocking the airway, and the injured person can’t breathe, you can lay the injured person flat, lift his chin, try to remove oral and airway secretions or foreign bodies by hand, and open the airway by hand.
Help to stop bleeding.
If there are a lot of active bleeding wounds on the injured person, direct compression is the first choice to stop bleeding, that is, use sterile gauze to press the wound for about 10 minutes;
If compression hemostasis is ineffective, it is suggested to use a tourniquet to tie the limbs closer to the heart than the wound to stop bleeding. If it is upper limb bleeding, tie the upper middle third of the upper arm, and if it is lower limb bleeding, tie the upper middle third of the femur as close as possible to the bleeding position. If you don’t have a medical tourniquet, you can use an elastic rubber band, etc., rather than an inelastic cloth belt (note that during the use of tourniquet, you should loosen the tourniquet every half an hour to one hour, and don’t tie it repeatedly at the same place);
For the bleeding of body cavity, it is suggested to use sterile gauze and other medical materials to stop bleeding.
Emergency treatment of wound
In the case that the injured person’s vital signs are stable and rescuers can’t come soon, preliminary emergency treatment can be carried out on the bite wound:
Wound irrigation and cleaning
It is very important to wash the bite wound thoroughly and effectively. Wash all bites alternately with soapy water (or other weakly alkaline cleaning agents) and flowing water for about 15min, and then use sterile gauze or absorbent cotton to suck up the residual liquid at the wound.
There is evidence that even in the absence of rabies immunoglobulin, more than 99% patients can survive through effective wound cleaning, immediate rabies vaccination and post-exposure prevention procedures.
Debridement and disinfection
After thorough washing, the residual rabies virus in the wound can be inactivated by smearing or cleaning the wound with dilute iodophor or other medical preparations with virus inactivation ability. Dog bite wounds (especially lacerations) need debridement to remove necrotic tissue, and if necessary, perform debridement.
Immune prevention of tetanus
Dog bite wounds are contaminated wounds, which are high-risk exposure to tetanus, and immunization measures for tetanus should be considered.
Seek medical attention as soon as possible.
Describe the dog’s appearance, behavior and vaccine to the doctor in detail to help the doctor judge whether rabies vaccine injection and wound treatment are needed.
04
After a dog bite
Immune prevention of rabies
After a dog bite, regardless of the degree of the wound, immune prevention of rabies should be considered at the first time.
05
Psychological intervention after dog bite