First Aid Response

So far, we've checked on two of the three ABCs —Airway and Breathing. Now it's time for C—Circulation. That's what we call it when blood moves through the body, carrying oxygen and food to our cells and carrying away waste products. To check circulation we feel for the pulse, the thumping sensation that means the heart's pumping. The simplest way to do that while kneeling for the Primary Survey is to find the bump in the front of the throat we call the Adam's apple—the bump that goes up and down when you swallow. Slide a couple of fingers off into the soft valley on one side of it. If you don't find a pulse right away, feel up from there but still in the valley.

Another way to check for a heartbeat is to press your ear against the person's chest. You're trying to hear the heart beating this time, instead of feeling it beating.

People who have no pulse have a heart that has stopped beating. They need the chest compressions of CPR. Chest compressions are done by placing your hands over the victim's heart, on the lower third of the sternum (the bone in the middle of the person's chest), and pushing down hard enough to squeeze blood out of the heart and up to the brain of the victim. CPR switches back and forth between chest compressions and rescue breathing, usually with 15 compressions and then two breaths, and then 15 more compressions. (It's a pattern—15-2, 15-2.) You're making the heart and lungs work for someone who can't do it for himself or herself. Please—take a CPR class!

Circulation also reminds us that someone who is bleeding severely can bleed to death if we don't stop the blood from circulating out of the body. During the Primary Survey of a victim, you need to take a close look to see if blood is rushing out of any wounds.