Emergency

Turn off the heat if you can do it safely. Slide a metal lid or a baking sheet over the pan to smother the flames, and leave it covered until it has cooled. Never use water — it makes burning oil explode — and don’t try to carry the pan outside. If the fire doesn’t go out right away, get everyone out and call your local emergency number.

Get everyone out now and stay out — don’t stop for belongings, and never go back inside. Stay low under smoke, and touch a door with the back of your hand before opening it: if it’s hot, use another way out. Once you’re out, call 911 (or your local emergency number). If your clothes catch fire: stop, drop to the ground, cover your face and roll.

Hold the burn under cool (not ice-cold) running water for 20 minutes, and take off any rings or tight clothing near it. Don’t use ice, butter or creams. Then cover it loosely with cling film or a clean, non-fluffy dressing. Get medical help if the burn is larger than the palm of your hand, deep, badly blistered, or on the face, hands, feet or a joint — always for a baby or young child — or if you’re unsure.

Rinse the eye straight away with lukewarm running water for at least 15 to 20 minutes, holding the eyelids open and letting the water run away from the other eye. Take out contact lenses if they come out easily. Don’t rub it or try to neutralise the chemical. Then call Poison Control — 1-844-POISON-X (1-844-764-7669) in Canada, 1-800-463-5060 in Quebec, 1-800-222-1222 in the US — and get medical care; for drain or oven cleaner or any strong chemical, go to the emergency department.

This can be anaphylaxis, which is an emergency. If they have an adrenaline (epinephrine) auto-injector such as an EpiPen, use it now, into the outer thigh, and call your local emergency number (911 in Canada and the US), saying it’s anaphylaxis. Lie them down with their legs raised, or let them sit up if that helps them breathe. If they’re no better after 5 minutes and there’s a second injector, use it.

Help them sit upright and stay calm, and use their reliever inhaler (usually blue) the way their asthma plan says, with a spacer if they have one. Call 911 (or your local emergency number) if they can’t speak in full sentences, their lips or face look blue or grey, they’re getting drowsy, or the inhaler isn’t helping — and keep using the reliever while you wait.

Call 911 (or your local emergency number) now. If you have naloxone (Narcan), give it right away — one spray into a nostril, or the injection into the thigh — and give another dose after 2 to 3 minutes if they don’t respond. It won’t harm them if it isn’t opioids. If they aren’t breathing, give rescue breaths or start CPR; if they are, roll them onto their side (the recovery position). Stay with them: naloxone can wear off before the drug does. In Canada, the Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Act protects you and the person overdosing from simple possession charges when you call for help.

Call Poison Control — 1-844-POISON-X (1-844-764-7669) in Canada, 1-800-463-5060 in Quebec, 1-800-222-1222 in the US — now, even if they seem fine, and have the container or label with you. If they’re unconscious, having a seizure or having trouble breathing, call 911 (or your local emergency number) instead. Don’t make them vomit, and don’t give food or drink unless you’re told to. If a child swallowed a button battery or magnets, go to the emergency department right away.

Get everyone — pets too — outside into fresh air right now, and call 911 (or your local emergency number) from outside. Don’t go back in until the fire department says it’s safe. Carbon monoxide has no smell; headache, dizziness, nausea or unusual sleepiness, especially in more than one person at home, can be a sign of it, and anyone with symptoms needs to be checked by a doctor.

Leave the building now, leaving the door open behind you. Don’t switch lights or appliances on or off, don’t light anything, and don’t use your phone until you’re outside. From a safe distance, call 911 or your gas company’s emergency line, and don’t go back in until they say it’s safe.

Call 911 (or your local emergency number), or have someone else call. Don’t go in after them unless you’re trained — reach with a pole or branch, or throw something that floats. Once they’re out, if they aren’t breathing normally, start CPR, with rescue breaths if you know how, and keep going until help takes over. Anyone who breathed in water should be seen by a doctor, even if they seem fine.

Don’t touch them while they may still be in contact with the electricity. Switch off the power at the breaker or unplug the source; if you can’t, move it away with something dry that doesn’t conduct, like a wooden broom handle. Stay at least 10 metres (33 feet) from a downed power line and anything touching it. Call 911 (or your local emergency number). If they aren’t breathing, start CPR once it’s safe, and cool any burns under running water. Anyone who had a significant shock should be checked by a doctor.

Stay with them and stay calm. Move hard or sharp things away, cushion their head, and loosen anything tight around the neck. Don’t hold them down and don’t put anything in their mouth. Time the seizure. When it stops, roll them onto their side (the recovery position) and stay until they’re fully aware. Call 911 (or your local emergency number) if it lasts more than 5 minutes, another one follows, it’s their first seizure, they’re injured, pregnant or diabetic, it happened in water, or they don’t wake up or struggle to breathe afterwards.

Think FAST. Face: is one side drooping? Arms: can they raise both, or does one drift down? Speech: is it slurred or strange? Time: call your local emergency number immediately, even if the symptoms fade, and note the time they started. Other sudden signs include numbness on one side, confusion, trouble seeing, dizziness or a severe headache.

Chest pain or pressure, especially spreading to the arm, jaw or back, or with sweating, breathlessness or nausea, can be a heart attack. Call your local emergency number now, and don’t drive yourself. While you wait, sit down, rest and unlock the door. If you’re not allergic and haven’t been told to avoid it, chewing one regular (325 mg) aspirin can help; the emergency operator can advise you.

If they’re unresponsive and not breathing normally (gasping doesn’t count), call 911 (or your local emergency number) and put the phone on speaker. Start CPR: push hard and fast in the centre of the chest, at least 5 cm (2 inches) deep, 100 to 120 times a minute, letting the chest come back up each time; for a baby, use two fingers, about 4 cm (1.5 inches) deep. Send someone for an AED (defibrillator) and use it as soon as it arrives — it talks you through each step. Don’t stop until help takes over or they start breathing normally.

Never mix bleach with ammonia (in some glass and floor cleaners), which releases toxic chloramine gas; with vinegar or other acids (some toilet-bowl and rust removers), which releases chlorine gas; or with rubbing alcohol. Don’t mix different drain cleaners either. Use one product at a time, rinse in between, and keep the room ventilated. If someone breathes in fumes and feels unwell, get them into fresh air and call Poison Control (1-844-POISON-X in Canada, 1-800-222-1222 in the US) or your local emergency number.

If they can cough, encourage them to keep coughing. If they can’t cough, speak or breathe, give up to 5 firm back blows between the shoulder blades, then up to 5 abdominal thrusts (the Heimlich manoeuvre), and repeat. Call your local emergency number. If they become unresponsive, start CPR. For a baby under one, use back blows and chest thrusts, never abdominal thrusts.

Call 911 (or your local emergency number) if they were knocked out, have a seizure, keep vomiting, are confused or unusually drowsy, have a headache that’s getting worse, slurred speech, weakness, blood or clear fluid from the nose or ears, or unequal pupils — or if they take blood thinners or are an older adult. Press firmly on a bleeding scalp wound with a clean cloth. Otherwise hold something cold (wrapped) on the bump, and have someone stay with them and watch closely for the next 24 hours; get medical help if anything on that list appears. For a young child, see a doctor if you’re at all unsure.

Press firmly and directly on the wound with a clean cloth, towel or your hand, and keep pressing without lifting it to check. If blood soaks through, put more cloth on top and keep going. Raise the injured part if you can, and have them lie down if they feel faint. Call 911 (or your local emergency number) if the bleeding is heavy or spurting, doesn’t slow after 10 minutes of firm pressure, or the wound is large or deep. For life-threatening bleeding from an arm or leg, a tourniquet applied 5 to 7 cm (2 to 3 inches) above the wound can save a life.

Heat stroke is an emergency: hot skin, confusion, slurred speech, fainting or a seizure after time in the heat. Call 911 (or your local emergency number) and cool them fast while you wait: move them somewhere cool, remove extra clothing, soak their skin with cool water and fan them, and put ice packs at the neck, armpits and groin. Heat exhaustion (heavy sweating, headache, dizziness, nausea) comes first: rest somewhere cool, loosen clothing and sip water, and get help if they aren’t better within 30 minutes or get worse.

For frostbite, get somewhere warm first, then rewarm the area in warm (not hot) water, about body temperature, for 15 to 30 minutes. Don’t rub it or put snow on it, and don’t use a heater, fire or heating pad: numb skin burns easily. Don’t thaw it if it could freeze again, and get medical care for anything beyond mild redness. For hypothermia (shivering, confusion, slurred speech, clumsiness), call 911 (or your local emergency number), get them out of the cold and out of wet clothes, wrap them in blankets — the body first, not the arms and legs — and give warm, sweet, non-alcoholic drinks only if they’re fully awake.

If they’re awake and can swallow, give fast sugar now: 15 g, such as 3/4 cup (175 mL) of juice or regular (not diet) pop, or glucose tablets. Wait 15 minutes, check again if you can, and repeat if they’re still low or no better; once they feel better, a snack helps it hold. If they’re drowsy, unconscious or can’t swallow, don’t give anything by mouth — call 911 (or your local emergency number), put them on their side, and use their glucagon if they have it and you know how.

Sit up and lean forward — leaning back sends blood down the throat. Pinch the soft part of the nose, just below the bony bridge, firmly for 10 to 15 minutes without letting go, and breathe through your mouth. A cold pack on the bridge of the nose can help. Get medical help if it hasn’t stopped after 20 to 30 minutes, it followed a blow to the head, it’s very heavy, or you take blood thinners.

Slow the breathing down — that is the part that actually works. Breathe in gently through your nose for a count of four, then out through your mouth for a count of six or more, and keep going; an out-breath longer than the in-breath is what settles the body. Let it come rather than fighting it — a panic attack peaks within about ten minutes and then passes, frightening as it feels. Put both feet flat on the floor and name a few things you can see, hear and touch, to come back into the room. Don’t breathe into a paper bag: that advice is out of date, and it is dangerous if the breathlessness turns out to be something other than panic. If attacks keep happening, or you start avoiding places because of them, it is worth talking to a doctor — panic is very treatable.