If a person is injured in an accident and loses blood, they often first need the help of laypeople.
Researchers from Sweden wanted to know whether such medical laypeople can assess when blood loss is critical. To do this, they showed videos to 125 test subjects in which actors portrayed an injured, bleeding person. The test subjects should assess whether the blood loss is harmless, dangerous or life-threatening. The result: In general, the test subjects overestimated blood loss if the wound was relatively harmless, and they were more likely to underestimate blood loss if a wound was dangerous or life-threatening.
Especially if the injured person was a woman, the test subjects thought their wound was more likely to be harmless. The researchers emphasize therefore that this error must be pointed out more in first aid courses. In general, everyone should know what to do with a heavily bleeding wound.
–
