The techniques on this page take minutes to learn and are not difficult. What stops people helping is not ignorance of the method — it is the few seconds of hesitation while they wonder whether it is really an emergency, whether someone better qualified is coming, and whether they will make it worse. This page exists to shorten those seconds.
Almost every emergency starts the same way, and the opening moves are the same whether the person has collapsed from a cardiac arrest, a stroke, a diabetic crisis or a fall down the stairs. You do not need a diagnosis to begin. You need to know that the scene will not kill you too, whether the person responds, and whether they are breathing.
Cardiac arrest is not a heart attack. A heart attack is a plumbing problem — a blocked artery starving heart muscle — and the person is usually awake and in pain. Cardiac arrest is an electrical problem: the heart stops pumping, and the person drops. A heart attack can cause a cardiac arrest. Only the second one needs CPR.
The American Heart Association published new guidelines on 22 October 2025. The core compression numbers did not change, and they are worth committing to memory because they are the whole technique:
For rate, almost any driving song at roughly 100 to 120 beats a minute will hold you there. The traditional one is Stayin' Alive, which is about 103 beats a minute and has the advantage of being hard to forget under pressure.
The defibrillator. An AED is designed to be used by someone who has never seen one. Turn it on and it talks you through it: bare the chest, stick the pads where the pictures show, stand clear, press the flashing button when told. It analyzes the rhythm itself and will not deliver a shock to a heart that does not need one. Keep doing compressions while someone else fetches and opens it, and resume compressions immediately after any shock.
Four things the voice prompts do not always tell you: dry a wet chest before the pads go on, peel off any medication patch and wipe the skin, do not place a pad directly over the hard lump of an implanted pacemaker or defibrillator — put it an inch to the side — and for a child under about eight, use the pediatric pads or the key if the unit has them. If it does not, adult pads are far better than no defibrillation at all.
First, tell the difference between a person who is choking and a person who is coughing. Someone coughing forcefully, wheezing or able to speak still has air moving, and coughing is more effective than anything you can do. Stay with them and encourage them to keep coughing. The emergency is the silent one: cannot speak, cannot cough, cannot breathe, often clutching the throat.
When abdominal thrusts are not possible — a person in a wheelchair, in late pregnancy, or too large for you to reach around — the AHA recommends cycles of five back blows followed by five chest thrusts instead.
Alone and choking? Call 911 even if you cannot speak; many dispatch centers will send help to an open line. Then thrust your own abdomen against a firm edge — the back of a chair, a countertop.
A person can bleed to death from a limb injury in a few minutes, which is faster than an ambulance can reach most addresses. This is the emergency where a bystander most reliably changes the outcome. The American College of Surgeons built the national Stop the Bleed program around three methods: direct pressure, packing the wound, and a tourniquet.
Protect yourself. Gloves if you have them, a plastic bag over your hands if you do not. Wash thoroughly afterwards.
| American Heart Association / Red Cross guidelines | "for at least 10 minutes" | 2020 |
| Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council | "a minimum of 10 minutes, ideally 20 minutes" | June 2019 |
| Red Cross public guidance | "5–20 minutes" | undated |
| Mayo Clinic | "about 10 minutes" | April 2026 |
These are all reputable bodies giving different numbers for the same action. Ten minutes is the figure most of them share, and twenty is better. There is an upper bound too: the same Red Cross advisory warns against cooling beyond 40 minutes because of the risk of making the person hypothermic, which matters most with a large burn, a child, or a cold room. Know that the guidance is unsettled rather than trusting a single figure.
Chemical burns. Brush off dry chemical powder before adding water, remove contaminated clothing, then flush with copious running water — the Red Cross says at least 15 minutes, the Mayo Clinic says at least 20. Call the Poison Help line on 1-800-222-1222.
Electrical burns. Do not touch the person until the power is off. Stay at least 50 feet from high-voltage lines, further if they are arcing. The visible skin burn badly understates the damage, because the current has travelled through tissue between the entry and exit points. Every electrical burn needs medical assessment, and electrocution can stop the heart — be ready to start CPR.
Suspect a spinal injury after any fall from height, any vehicle collision, any diving or sports impact, and any head injury with altered consciousness. Also suspect it if the person reports severe neck or back pain, weakness, numbness or loss of bladder control, or if their neck or body is twisted oddly.
There are only three reasons to move someone with a suspected spinal injury: the scene is dangerous, you need to start CPR, or you cannot control bleeding otherwise. If you must, get at least one other person, one at the head and one at the side, and roll them as a single unit keeping head, neck and back in line.
The recovery position is for someone who is unresponsive but breathing normally, and its purpose is to keep the airway clear if they vomit. Roll them onto their side, head supported on the lower arm, mouth angled toward the ground, top knee bent to stop them rolling further. It is not for someone with a suspected head, neck or back injury unless you must move them for safety, CPR or bleeding control.
Concussion. Loss of consciousness is not required. Confusion, repeated questions, headache, nausea, unsteadiness, sensitivity to light or personality change all count. Anyone with a suspected concussion stops the activity for the day and gets assessed. Worsening headache, repeated vomiting, one pupil larger than the other, seizure or increasing drowsiness are emergencies.
A stroke is a brain injury in progress. Either a clot has cut the blood supply to part of the brain, or a vessel has burst. Both are emergencies and you cannot tell which from outside — which is exactly why you do not give aspirin.
| Check | What you are looking for | |
|---|---|---|
| B | Balance | Sudden loss of balance or coordination |
| E | Eyes | Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes |
| F | Face | Ask them to smile. Does one side droop? |
| A | Arms | Ask them to raise both arms. Does one drift down? |
| S | Speech | Ask them to repeat a phrase. Slurred or strange? |
| T | Time | Any one of these — call 911 now, and note the time |
The older version of this acronym is FAST; the American Stroke Association and the CDC now both use the expanded BE FAST, because balance and vision symptoms were being missed. Other sudden warning signs: numbness or weakness on one side, sudden confusion or trouble understanding speech, and a sudden severe headache with no known cause.
| CDC | Best treatments available only within 3 hours of first symptoms | May 2026 |
| NINDS | 4.5 hours for clot-busting drugs; some benefit up to 24 hours | April 2026 |
| AHA / ASA guideline | Thrombolytics within 4.5 hours; thrombectomy up to 24 hours in selected patients | January 2026 |
Do not memorise a deadline, and never let one talk you out of calling. Eligibility now depends on brain imaging as much as on the clock, and some patients are treated far later than the headline numbers suggest. The instruction that survives all of this: call 911 immediately and note the time.
The classic presentation is discomfort in the center of the chest lasting more than a few minutes, or going away and coming back — pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain. It may spread to one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach. Shortness of breath can come with it or without any chest discomfort at all. Cold sweat, nausea, lightheadedness, unusual fatigue and an irregular heartbeat are all on the list.
| AHA public guidance | "Don't do anything before calling 911." The 911 operator may then recommend aspirin | Feb 2025 |
| AHA / Red Cross first aid guidelines | May encourage an alert adult with non-traumatic chest pain to chew and swallow aspirin while awaiting EMS — a weak, expert-opinion recommendation | 2020 |
| 2024 first aid update | States the dose as 162–325 mg, chewed and swallowed | Nov 2024 |
The safest course covers both: call 911 first, always, and let the dispatcher decide about aspirin. Never delay the call to hunt for a tablet, and never give aspirin to someone with a known aspirin allergy, who has been told by a clinician not to take it, or who might be having a stroke.
While you wait: keep them sitting, resting and calm, loosen tight clothing, and do not let them walk about or drive. If they become unresponsive and stop breathing normally, start CPR and send for an AED.
Anaphylaxis is a whole-body allergic reaction that can close the airway within minutes. Look for trouble breathing, wheeze, a hoarse voice, tightness in the throat or chest, trouble swallowing, swelling of the face or throat, hives, vomiting, cramping, dizziness or collapse — and a feeling of impending doom, which patients report often enough that allergists list it as a symptom.
The signs the CDC lists are unconsciousness or an inability to wake the person; slow, shallow or difficult breathing, sometimes with choking, gurgling or snoring sounds; discolored skin, especially the lips and nails; and small, constricted pinpoint pupils that do not react to light. The snoring sound is the one bystanders most often dismiss — it is a partly obstructed airway, not sleep.
Heat exhaustion and heat stroke are not two names for the same thing. One is treated with shade and sips of water; the other is a medical emergency that kills. The single most useful discriminator is the skin and the mental state.
| Heat exhaustion | Heat stroke | |
|---|---|---|
| Skin | Cold, pale and clammy | Hot, red — dry or damp |
| Sweating | Heavy | May have stopped |
| Mind | Alert, feels awful | Confused, slurred speech, may collapse |
| Temperature | Raised | 103°F or higher |
| Pulse | Fast and weak | Fast and strong |
| What to do | Cool place, loosen clothing, cool wet cloths, sip water | Call 911 now. Cool aggressively. Give nothing to drink. |
For heat stroke, OSHA is unambiguous that immersing the person in cold water or an ice bath is the best method of rapid cooling in an emergency. Where that is not possible, wet cloths and ice to the head, neck, armpits and groin. Get help on the way first. If you cannot tell which of the two you are dealing with, cool the person and call 911.
Hypothermia is a body temperature below 95°F. Early: shivering, exhaustion, confusion, fumbling hands, memory loss, slurred speech, drowsiness. The sign that alarms professionals is when the shivering stops without the person warming up — that means the body has lost the ability to generate heat, and it is late. In infants, look for bright red, cold skin and very low energy.
Frostbite shows as white or greyish-yellow skin that feels unusually firm or waxy, with numbness. Rewarm in warm — not hot — water. The CDC deliberately gives no number here: the water should be comfortable to the touch for an unaffected part of the body. Do not walk on frostbitten feet unless you have no choice, and do not rewarm if there is any chance of the part refreezing, which does more damage than staying frozen.
Do not induce vomiting. Syrup of ipecac is no longer recommended and should not be kept in the house. Bringing a caustic substance back up burns the throat a second time. If the swallowed product is burning or irritating and the person is conscious, able to swallow and not convulsing, a small amount of water or milk may help. Have the container in your hand when you call.
For poison on the skin, remove contaminated clothing first and rinse with room-temperature running water for at least 15 minutes. For poison in the eye, remove contact lenses and irrigate for 15 to 20 minutes, encouraging blinking. For inhaled poison, get to fresh air — without becoming a casualty yourself in an enclosed space.
Diabetic emergencies. Low blood sugar arrives fast: shakiness, sweating, a racing heart, hunger, anxiety, irritability and confusion, progressing to seizures or unconsciousness. High blood sugar builds over hours or days: great thirst, heavy urination, deep rapid breathing, dry mouth, vomiting, abdominal pain and a distinctive fruity smell on the breath.
Treat any significant limb injury as a possible fracture; you cannot reliably tell a bad sprain from a break by looking, and neither can most doctors without an X-ray. Keep the part still and supported in the position you found it. Do not try to straighten a deformed limb or push a protruding bone back in. If you are trained in splinting and help is far off, splint above and below the injury.
For cold: the Red Cross says no more than 20 minutes at a time with a cold pack wrapped in a thin dry towel, then wait 20 minutes before reapplying. For sprains specifically, the Mayo Clinic gives 15 to 20 minutes, four to eight times a day for the first 48 hours, with compression and the limb elevated above heart level. Never put ice directly against skin.
The kit. The American Red Cross publishes a contents list for a household of four, and it is a better starting point than any commercial kit sold in a plastic case:
Worth adding beyond that list, on the strength of everything above: a manufactured tourniquet, a few packs of gauze for wound packing, and naloxone. Check the kit twice a year and replace what has expired.
Every figure on this page was checked against a named source in August 2026. That date matters more than it looks. First aid guidance is revised on a cycle: the American Heart Association published new resuscitation guidelines on 22 October 2025 which changed the choking sequence, and the AHA and Red Cross issued revised first aid guidelines in November 2024. A page written in 2023 is teaching something different from this one.
Where the sources disagree, this page shows the disagreement rather than picking a winner. Three of those are marked in the text above — how long to cool a burn, whether to take aspirin for chest pain, and how long the stroke treatment window runs. In each case the bodies involved are all reputable and all current, and a page that quietly picked one number would be hiding something you ought to know.
A few things could not be verified and are therefore not stated here as facts: a numeric water temperature for cooling a burn or rewarming frostbite (the CDC deliberately avoids one), numeric temperature stages of hypothermia, and hold times for epinephrine auto-injectors other than the EpiPen. Where a number is missing from this page, that is usually why.