University of Silesia in Katowice

Notify the facility administrator or security, who will inform the appropriate services about the emergency. You can also notify the appropriate services directly by calling the emergency number 112 or 999.

If you are a witness or participant in an emergency event, try to stay calm and follow these rules:

• Assess the safety of the injured person and your own. If the location of the emergency is unsafe, call emergency numbers and try to evacuate the injured person to a safe place.
• Assess the injured person’s condition and consciousness. Ask what happened. If the injured person hears you and responds, they are conscious. If they don’t respond, place them in the recovery position.
• Clear their airway. Place one hand on the injured person’s forehead and the other on their chin and tilt their head back. Remove visible foreign bodies from their oral cavity.
• Assess their breathing. Place your cheek close to the injured person’s face. Do you feel the exhaled air on your cheek? Do you see the movement of their chest? The injured person is breathing. If they are unconscious but breathing, place them in the recovery position.
• If the injured person has lost consciousness and has stopped breathing, perform CPR and use a defibrillator if you have one at your disposal.
• Ensure your own safety before administering help. Wear disposable gloves and a mask to avoid the risk of infection.

When the injured person is breathing but unconscious.

Airway obstruction, hypothermia, overheating or mechanical injuries may cause the injured person to lose consciousness. If they are unconscious but breathing, place them in the recovery position:

• Open their airway by tilting their head. If they are wearing glasses, take them off.
• Lay the injured person on their back and straighten their legs.
• Place their arm that is closest to you at a right angle to the body, and then bend it at the elbow at a right angle. The palm should be facing upwards.
• Bend their other arm at the elbow and place the back of their arm under the opposite cheek. Hold it with one hand.
• With your other hand, bend the far leg at the knee and turn the injured person onto their side, toward you.
• Place the knee you used to roll the injured person at a right angle to the hip.
• Check the injured person’s breathing regularly until the ambulance arrives.
• Shield the injured person from adverse weather conditions, e.g. sun or rain.
• If you have to wait more than 30 minutes for an ambulance, turn the injured person onto their other side.

Link to a recovery position video.

What to do if the injured person is not breathing?

The injured person lost consciousness and stopped breathing? Start CPR as soon as possible. Continue performing CPR until the injured person regains consciousness or until the ambulance arrives.

• CPR involves alternating 30 chest compressions and 2 rescue breaths. In between, clear the injured person’s airways. First, place the injured person on a hard, level surface. Kneel to their side, at the level of their chest. Ask another person for help and take turns.
• Use a defibrillator if you have one at your disposal.
• In children under one year of age, compress the sternum to a depth of one-third of the chest. Use only 2 fingers for this: the index and middle fingers, placed in the centre of the child’s chest. Do not cover the child’s nose when performing the rescue breaths.

Source: Website of the Ministry of Health and the National Health Fund.