24 Life-Saving Tips That Aren’t Hard To Remember But Can Make A Huge Difference
Article created by: Kotryna Br
Although it’s impossible to predict every emergency situation, knowing how to effectively respond to them can be critical in surviving them.
We recently stumbled across a post on r/AskReddit where user u/luciflerfather3 asked people to share some tips that could potentially save a person’s life.
After a quick scroll through the comments, we realized it would be a good idea to take a deeper dive and hand-pick the ones that sounded useful.
Here’s what we came up with.
Maybe it won’t save your life in all situations where you could use it, but if you’re starting to feel really depressed, remember HALT.
Hungry
Angry
Lonely
Tired
Ask yourself if you’ve covered those bases. Eat a good meal and drink water. Step away from a stressful situation to decompress for a bit. Phone a friend, maybe ask for them to come over. Take a nap. HALT helps me a lot with stress management. Hope it helps someone.
If you’re ever stuck in quicksand, lie down. It’s like floating on water, the dispersion of your weight will make you float.
Though I admit this isn’t as common a problem as I was led to believe as a child.
If you’re on an airplane that crashes into water, don’t inflate your life-vest until after you have swum out of the plane. If you inflate your flotation device before escaping you are much more likely to get trapped in the fuselage as water levels inside the plane rise and you get pushed towards the ceiling.
Find your life jacket, get out of the plane, then inflate it.
Some winter advice. If you are homeless, or for whatever reason have to sleep outside, find something to put between you and the ground. Cardboard works great but find something. All your energy will not warm the Earth and many people have frozen this way as the ground absorbs more and more energy.
There is a cycle of violence when it comes to domestics. It starts with a build-up, where tension and aggression are escalating. This moves to an explosion, where the abuser releases tension. Following this, there will be remorse and pursuit. The abuser will start to tell. You how sorry they are, then start to try and charm you. This is where they blame something for their anger (usually you) and try to win you back. Once they have won you over, you will experience a short honeymoon stage, where they are on their best behavior. After this, is again the build-up.
The cycle just continues. It can end with you being killed. If this is happening to you, please do some reading (if it’s safe). Seek some help through your friends or family (an abuser is likely to have isolated you, but they do still care and will help). If you are being abused, there are people and services that can help. You may not feel like it, but you are worth something, and you are much better than they are making you feel. Get out before it gets worse.
If you’re near the ocean and all that water suddenly dissappears/recedes unexpectedly then get out of there and get to high ground because that’s a tsunami.
If you or someone else is having a heart attack, take aspirin. Chew it tho, don’t swallow it whole.
Also, when performing CPR, people don’t usually come back to life like in the movies. If done correctly, CPR can keep people alive for hours, so keep going until help arrives
How to recognise when someone is drowning:
Silence – while someone who is shouting is on the verge of drowning (and will likely need rescuing), it’s the person thrashing about in the water not making any vocal sounds you need to worry about.
When someone is actually drowning, their lungs are filling up with water inhibiting their inability to call for help.
Hairy face – anyone who has long hair knows that when it gets wet and it sticks to your face, the immediate reaction is to swipe it away. Not for a drowning person
When someone is actually drowning, all power is devoted to saving themselves. The issue of wet hair across the face is not a priority. Keep an eye out for someone in the water splashing about but not immediately reaching to remove their hair from their eyes.
If someone points a gun at you, maintain eye contact with the person.
Eye contact makes it harder to pull the trigger.
If your car’s accelerator pedal gets stuck or something else is causing unintended acceleration. Put it in neutral.
It sounds obvious but it’s hard to remember when it happens and it won’t be instinct. Turning the key off works but could cause the steering to lock or loss of breaks.
If you get lost in the woods, stay where you are! The chances of finding the way out on your own are pretty slim and you’re just creating a larger search area for SAR.
Also, tell people exactly where you’re going and when you’ll be home. If you’re not home by X time, instruct someone to call for help.
If a guard dog comes at you, look to one side and slowly turn around. Then walk away.
If a dog hunts you, scream before it reaches you and fight if it didn’t scare.
The first has saved me from two rottweilers once.
Chemical burns are not like fire or heat burns.
Many will not immediately trigger a reflex action of pain.
I lost a chunk of skin under my armpit because an industrial cleaner dripped under my rain suit. I had rinsed off my arm and didn’t receive so much redness, but 30 minutes later I noticed my shirt was soaked in blood. No pain till the next day and by then a quarter size piece of skin had fallen off.
Read the labels and remove any chemical as quickly as possible using the recommended method. Water is not always the best way.
F.A.S.T. which is a way to help you detect the early signs of a stroke on yourself or others
FACE: Ask the person to smile. Does one side of the face droop?
ARMS: Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?
SPEECH: Ask the person to repeat a simple phrase. Is their speech slurred or strange?
TIME: If you observe any of these signs, call 9-1-1 immediately.
If an armed person tries to rob you, give them your money, phone, whatever. In fact, take it out slowly and carefully, drop it, and back away. Then, if you can run. If they try to force you to go with them, put up a massive fight and yell fire fire fire.
People will generally run to help fight a fire. They are not so keen to intervene when you are shouting murder.
NEVER go to the secondary location with a robber. That is where you get murdered or raped, or both.
If your car is skidding on an icy or wet road, steer in the direction of the skid rather than against it. You have a better chance of regaining control of the car and you avoid the risk of flipping your car over.
Most importantly do not slam the brakes.
911 is not the emergency number in most countries. Find out what the emergency number is in whichever country you’re planning to visit.
Former 911 operator here. DON’T FEEL BAD ABOUT CALLING 911! Unless it’s very stupid like McDonald’s screwed up your order. If it’s not an emergency, they’ll tell you to call non-emerg. An emergency is not just a violent crime, it’s a crime or potential crime in progress, an issue affecting safety (or medical emergency or fire department issue too)
Also, teach your non-English speaking family the word for their language in English in case they need to call 911.
Most drunk driving deaths occur on Saturday night between 1 and 3 am. Avoid the roads during these times if you can help it.
