In and external hemorrhage, blood escapes to the outside as when tissues are torn by a cut or by crushing injury. A person may bleed to death from internal hemorrhage even though not a drop of blood escapes to the outside.
A person may lose 2 to 3 pints of blood and still survive. If a large artery has been severed and bleeding is rapid, does not take long dor this much blood to be lost. Treatment of hemorrhage, must be prompt.
General Indications of Hemorrhage
When considerable blood is lost, certain signs and symptom occur: faintness; sudden thirst; dizziness; cold, clammy skin;rapid, shallow breathing; anxiety; rapid, weak, and irregular heartbeat (noticeable when taking the pulse) and enlargement of the pupils of the eyes. Sometimes shock, together with the signs mentioned above, provides the only indication of internal hemorrhage.
A. External Hemorrhage
An injured person should be examined as soon as possible to determine whether he is losing blood. Clothing must be removed from parts of the body where blood is seen seeping through.
WHAT TO DO
Apply direct pressure at the point of bleeding. A sterile gauze dressing, clean sanitary napkin, or freshly laundered piece of cloth should be placed over the wound and held here firmly. Only the pressure necessary to stop the bleeding should be used, for excessive pressure may interfere with the blood supply to other parts. If pressure controls the bleeding, a bandage may be needed to hold the dressing in place until the patient reaches the hospital. When pressure over the wound does not control the bleeding, follow instructions as given in the next item.
For profuse bleeding coming in spurts from an arm, leg, or the face, apply deep pressure over the main artery that supplies this part. The main artery that served the thigh and leg can be collapsed by applying firm, deep pressure in the groin. That supplying the arm can be shut off by firm pressure high in the arm along a line extending downward from just in front of the armpit. That supplying the face may be compressed by pressing backward and inward in the neck along a line between the larynx and the muscles that turn then head. Bleeding from one side of the forehead may be controlled by pressure in front of the upper part of the ear.
B. Internal Hemorrhage
Internal Hemorrhage results from damage to or rupture of one of the body's internal organs, such as the liver or spleen; from the rupture of an oviduct (as in a tubal pregnancy) from the severing of a blood vessel (as for gunshot) from disease within a lung or from a stomach ulcer.
Even though many internal hemorrhages give no external evidence of their presence, some produce an internal accumulation of blood later expelled through one of the body openings. Hemorrhage in the lungs usually results in coughing up of bright-res, frothy blood. Bleeding into the stomach may be indicated by vomited blood red if the blood is recent, otherwise dark and clotted. Bleeding into the intestine may be evidenced by the passing of jet black stools.
WHAT TO DO
Emergency treatment of internal hemorrhage consists of giving momentary care until a physician can take over. Often the only adequate treatment for severe internal hemorrhage is surgery. The victim should be kept warm, his feet and legs elevated above the level of his body his condition of shock becomes extreme.