Medical and health
What you can genuinely do at home, and where the ceiling honestly is.
Someone could die in the next few minutes
Open one of these first and read the rest later.
- MH5 CPREverything about CPR except the one thing text cannot give you, which is the feel of the right depth and rhythm. Read this, then book a course, and if neither is possible, do it anyway: badly done CPR beats none.Quick actions, 7 steps
- MH4 Choking, by ageFive back blows, then five thrusts, alternating. The thrusts differ by age and getting that wrong causes serious harm: abdominal for anyone over one, chest for a baby under one, never abdominal on a baby or a pregnant woman.Quick actions, 9 steps
- MH16 Anaphylaxis and the auto-injectorAdrenaline into the outer thigh, and then keep them lying flat. Standing someone up during anaphylaxis can kill them, and it is the mistake a helpful bystander is most likely to make.Quick actions, 7 steps
- MH28 Recognising and treating shockNot fright or distress. A failure of the circulation to deliver oxygen, which kills quietly while the person is still talking. Lie them down, raise the legs, keep them warm, and treat the cause.Quick actions, 8 steps
- MH15 Carbon monoxide poisoningThe medical half of a hazard covered elsewhere. It mimics flu without a fever, it improves when you leave the house, and it takes hours to clear from the blood, which is why leaving the room is a first step and not a cure.Quick actions, 8 steps
- MH9 Recognise sepsisThe highest-consequence recognition task in this whole app. Sepsis kills fast, it hides behind ordinary illness, and the single most useful thing you can do is say the word out loud to whoever is assessing the patient.Quick actions, 8 steps
- MH3 Treat a burnTwenty minutes of cool running water, and it still helps up to three hours later. Nothing else you can put on a burn does as much, and several traditional remedies actively make it worse.Quick actions, 6 steps
- MH13 Head injury and concussionMost head injuries are fine. The ones that are not declare themselves in the following hours, which is why the watching matters more than the first assessment. Symptoms can take up to 48 hours to appear.Quick actions, 8 steps
- MH6 Hypothermia and rewarmingWarm the torso, never the limbs. Rubbing cold arms and legs sends chilled blood back to the heart and can stop it, which is why the obvious thing to do is the dangerous one.Quick actions, 8 steps
- MH7 Heat exhaustion and heatstrokeThirty minutes is the dividing line. Cool them down and if they are not better in half an hour it is heatstroke, which is a 999 call. Hot skin that has stopped sweating is the sign that matters.Quick actions, 8 steps
Injuries
Bad, but not immediately life-threatening.
- MH1 Clean and dress a woundFive to ten minutes of running water is the whole treatment. Antiseptic goes on the skin around the wound and never in it, because it damages the tissue trying to heal.Quick actions, 8 steps
- MH26 Closing a wound, and when not toMost wounds should not be closed, and the ones that should can usually be done with strips or glue rather than stitches. If nobody is coming, delayed closure at 48 hours is the safe procedure and it is a real technique, not a compromise.Quick actions, 9 steps
- MH2 Watching a wound for infectionIncreasing pain after the first day is the earliest reliable sign. Red streaks tracking away from the wound mean it is spreading through the lymphatics, and that is the point at which time stops being on your side.Quick actions, 7 steps
- MH10 Splint a suspected fractureImmobilise the joint above and below, in the position you found it, and check circulation before and after. The one exception to never straightening a limb is when there is no blood supply below the break.Quick actions, 8 steps
- MH11 Suspected dislocationSupport it where it lies, check the circulation, and do not attempt to put it back. Pulling and twisting a dislocated joint is how nerves and arteries get damaged, and the damage is often permanent.Quick actions, 9 steps
- MH24 Broken and bruised ribsNever strap the chest. Pain makes people breathe shallowly, shallow breathing retains phlegm, and retained phlegm becomes pneumonia. So pain relief and deliberate deep breathing are the treatment, not the comfort measures.Quick actions, 9 steps
- MH25 Eye injury and foreign bodiesFor a chemical splash, start irrigating before doing anything else and keep going for twenty minutes. For anything embedded, do not remove it, and cover both eyes because they move together.Quick actions, 8 steps
- MH14 Dental first aidA knocked-out tooth is a genuine time-critical emergency: back in the socket within minutes, or into milk. Never water. And toothache in a world without dentists is a problem worth preventing rather than treating.Quick actions, 9 steps
Illness and ordinary care
The things a household deals with over days and weeks.
- MH8 Mix oral rehydration saltsSix level teaspoons of sugar and half a level teaspoon of salt in a litre of clean water. Probably the highest lives-saved-per-word ratio of anything in this app, and it costs nothing.Quick actions, 7 steps
- MH12 Remove a tick, and watch for LymeFine-tipped tweezers, grasp close to the skin, pull straight up without twisting. Then watch the bite for 30 days, because the rash that matters appears between 3 and 30 days later.Quick actions, 8 steps
- MH23 Lice, scabies and bedbugsHeat is the treatment for the household, and the number is 60°C. That is what current NHS guidance specifies, a modern eco wash at 30°C does nothing at all, and that gap is why these keep coming back.Quick actions, 9 steps
- MH27 Assisting a birthMost births need no help at all, and your job is warmth, hygiene and watching for bleeding. This page covers the normal course, the signs that something is not normal, and what to do when nobody is coming.Quick actions, 9 steps
- MH20 Menstrual management long termRoutinely left out of preparedness writing, and it affects half the household every month regardless of what else is happening. Reusables solve the supply problem and create a water and hygiene problem, and the trade is worth understanding before you need to make it.Quick actions, 9 steps
- MH21 Managing a chronic condition as care reducesThe most likely medical problem in a long emergency is not trauma. It is somebody with an ordinary managed condition running out of the thing that manages it.Quick actions, 8 steps
The medicine cupboard
Keeping what you have, and making what you can.
- MH17 Store medicines without a fridgeMost medicines are fine at room temperature and hate heat, light and damp far more than they hate the absence of a fridge. Insulin is the exception that needs planning, and freezing destroys it permanently.Quick actions, 9 steps
- MH19 Make a salveInfused oil plus beeswax. Published ratios genuinely disagree, so the number that settles it is not a ratio at all: chill a spoonful, feel it, and adjust before you pour.Quick actions, 9 steps
- MH18 Make a tincture at a stated strengthAlcohol extraction at a known ratio, so you can repeat it and dose it. The strength is the whole point: an unlabelled jar of herb in vodka is not medicine, it is a guess.Quick actions, 9 steps
- MH22 Sharps and clinical waste at homeA needle in a bin bag injures whoever handles it next. Rigid container, never recapped, never overfilled, and a plan for the day nobody is collecting it.Quick actions, 8 steps