ANY EMERGENCY SITUATION REQUIRING A RAPID RESPONSE and immediate action is stress for an unprepared person. It happens that health and life depend on an instantly made decision, but often we simply do not know what to do (especially if the conversation about chest compressions was last in OBZH lessons a hundred years ago). We talk about the skills that help to survive or save someone else’s life in emergency situations, with the help of specialists: Candidate of Medical Sciences, psychotherapist of the Medicina clinic Irina Krashkina, educational psychologist, neuropsychologist Mikhail Ivanov and private psychologist Vadim Guliyev.

Ability to provide first aid

In most Western countries, they teach to provide first aid at all ages, and on a gratuitous basis. Such courses are taken by teenagers, housewives, call center employees, not to mention those who constantly interact with people at work. At the same time, for example, electric defibrillators are installed in public places: in subways and airports, cafes and cinemas, at gas stations and in shops. If you want to refresh your knowledge over time, you can enroll in the course again. This program is helping to save hundreds of lives year after year by reducing the number of “street deaths”.

First aid courses also exist in Russia. But there are several nuances: usually they are paid, they are not very popular (many do not even know about them) and are not always suitable for those who do not have a medical education. For example , in the Medical Simulation Center (MSC) of the Botkin Hospital, interactive equipment and robotic simulators are taught to provide emergency assistance in specially created critical conditions: for example, in the event of a terrorist attack in the subway with smoke or a shootout on the street with shouts and groans of victims. The problem is that such training is available only to medical workers, first of all to emergency doctors.

Of course, there is always a fallback – instructional videos on the Internet, but practice is the best teacher. You can take paid courses, for example, at the Moscow Rescue Service , PARAMEDIC School or the Scientific and Practical Center for Emergency Medical Aid . In Russia, you can also take certified American Emergency First Response courses – for example, basic CPR for assisting in life-threatening situations (cardiac arrest or bleeding), or Care for Children to save children of different ages. The cost of training is from two thousand rubles. At the end of the course, a certificate, certificate or certificate is issued, which is usually valid for 2-3 years (after this time, it is advisable to take the course again).

Knowledge of self-defense techniques

Self-defense skills at any level of sports training (even zero) will definitely come in handy in life. For example, Krav Maga, based on the self-defense technique of the Israeli army, translated from Hebrew means “contact combat”. There are elements from boxing, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, karate. But, unlike many traditional martial arts, in Krav Maga all the techniques are applicable not only in the gym, but also in real life – in case you need to stand up for yourself. In the classroom, they usually play out several extreme situations, for example, an attack by a robber, a maniac with a knife, an aggressive dog, and practice the skills of safe behavior in them. Moreover, they teach not only to defend themselves, having mastered throws and grabs, but also to inflict damage on the enemy, determining the least protected points.

The ability to swim well

Feeling confident at depth, especially in open water, when you have to overcome currents or waves, is not only an excellent workout for strength and endurance and a sure way to strengthen your back muscles. It is also an opportunity to challenge yourself by taking part in swimming races (for example, swimming across the Bosphorus at a distance of 1 to 6.5 kilometers), and sometimes even saving someone’s life. Irina Mitina, the head of the company, says that she once saved her daughter: “We were vacationing on the Black Sea; my daughter was small, but already knew how to swim well. While everyone was splashing along the shore, she swam far enough, and I began to wave my hand to her so that she would swim back. At first it seemed to me that the child was not obeying, but suddenly I realized that she simply could not cope with the waves and the sea was pulling her further and further. I threw myself into the water, swam to my daughter and began to push her with all my strength through the waves, while I myself went deep under the water, and when I emerged, I was covered with a new wave. Fortunately, everything worked out, but I remember that we staggered out of the sea and could not come to our senses for a long time. ”

Kite-surfer Nikolai Anokhin had to rescue drowning people on the river near Kolomna: “I saw a girl running along the bank and excitedly calling her mother, stretching out her arms towards the water. There were two drowning people in the river – a woman and a boy about ten years old. I jumped into the water with my clothes on – while I was running, I managed to throw all my documents out of my pockets. While he was swimming, time seemed to have stopped: I thought that I could not save both of them. When I was next to the drowning people, there was only a child on the surface, I picked him up, turned him over on his back and swam to the shore. The boy grabbed my arm with all his might, his eyes huge with fear. Having pulled out the child, he began to look for a woman. Her face was barely noticeable on the surface of the water – she struggled to fold her lips with a tube and breathe. I quickly swam to her, as if I no longer felt tired – and, fortunately, managed to save her. ”

 

 

 

Ability to support in an emergency

The goal of a terrorist attack is to sow fear and panic, so the reaction of a witness to a terrorist attack plays an important role. The less panic, the faster you will be able to leave the danger zone and get the necessary medical attention. Doctor Irina Krashkina notes that, of course, it is important to protect the wounded as much as possible: stop bleeding, immobilize a limb in the event of a fracture, before evacuating people. But it is equally important to assess the situation, not to panic and realize that all the victims are under severe stress. Suggestions to “calm down and not worry” are doomed to fail. According to psychologist Vadim Guliyev, real help in this case is to establish contact with the victim, share his feelings and express support by taking the person by the hand or stroking the shoulder, and then try to switch his attention.

 

 

 

Orientation in space without a navigator

According to neuropsychologist Mikhail Ivanov, the ability to orientate is not an additional option or a special talent, everyone has it. In research of neurobiology it is believed that a person determines his location in space thanks to the hippocampus, and close to it cortex Nobel laureate John O’Keefe discovered specific neurons in the hippocampus, which he called spatial cells. They are excited when they find themselves in a certain place – this happens about once a second, but the process is accelerated at times if there is already a cognitive map of the space. This system works in coordination with others – for example, thanks to the vestibular apparatus, the body understands whether it is positioned straight, whether it is leaning on something or falling. With the help of the proprioceptive sensory system, the brain constantly reads the impulses of neurons, thus figuring out where certain parts of the body are located. It turns out that orientation in space is closely related to orientation within one’s own body.

The most important thing is that it is not accessible to the chosen few, but to any person; those who label themselves as “topographic cretinism” may well develop the skill of orientation, because every time we find ourselves in a new place, the brain “draws” a new map. Finding yourself in an unfamiliar place in the city or getting lost in the forest, it is important not to panic. There is always some kind of landmark and, as a rule, not one. It can be a tall building, a source of noise or the sun , hills, bends of a stream, if you are in the forest. Focusing on them, you can draw up a preliminary cognitive map of the area in which you are, and supplement it taking into account further movements.

You should act in a similar way when familiarizing yourself with a map of the area. First, find memorable places that will serve as a landmark. Secondly, try to visualize the space using a map: how you will stand when you find yourself where the selected landmarks will be located relative to you, and so on. By the way, it is very useful to visit new places and make routes to the already known ones. It trains the brain well and helps it make cognitive maps faster and more efficiently.