Control major bleeding immediately

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call 999 immediately for 

- severe trauma 

- amputations 

- protruding bones 

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Injuries to bones and joints usually hurt a lot - if they don't hurt this could be a sign of addittionalnerve damage 

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If the patient is alert and can communicate

Allow the patient to get in a comfortable position, sitting up may help some people, let them hold the limb where its least painful​​​

it may help to immobilise the limb by holding joints above and below the injury and place soft padding around the limb

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for most injuries​ it would be good to identify what is broken and particularly with limb injuries to see how healthy the tissue is beyond the injury

(for example with an arm fracture , what does the hand look and feel like , has it gone white , is there a loss of sensation in the hand etc

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So, where possible remove as much kit as possible to identify the injury and describe it - does the limb look the same length as the uninjured limb, is it the same colour, is it pointing the wrong way, is any part of it missing , is bone poking out of the hole etc  

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Remove the helmet (it is common to vomit with severe pain) 

Remove body armour, including braces (knee, shoulder, wrist etc) 

(videos of how to remove kit to follow)​ - if this is too painful cut it off.

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Apart from pain killers - immobilising broken limbs can help a lot with pain control

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We can help train you to immobilise injuries 

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We can show you how to support upper limb injuries with a simple triangular bandage , this may feel very basic but can help a great deal

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We can show you how to immobilse limbs using splints 

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​The trackside management of dislocations can be tricky, there are a group of patients who have recurrent dislocations and will want to use techniques to relocate the joint (shoulder for example)

This is not so easy after trauma as the incidence of fractures alongside the dislocation are common

So the safest is to find a comfortable position and splint until assessed by a healthcare practitioner​

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​link to fracture kit​​

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