Good help starts with a simple rule: before helping, you have to think and call for help. This lesson explains the order of actions and how to make a useful call to 112.
The P.A.S. rule
Faced with an accident or a person who is ill, the order is Protect, Alert, Assist (in Portuguese, Proteger, Alertar, Socorrer: P.A.S.).
- Protect. Check that the place is safe for the rescuer, the casualty and anyone nearby. Remove the danger before acting: switch off the machine, cut the power, mark off the area. Someone who gets hurt while helping stops being help and becomes another casualty.
- Alert. Call for specialist help by dialling 112.
- Assist. Give the care you know how to give, and only that, until help arrives.
Even when the situation seems minor, you should tell your supervisor straight away, or the worker designated for first aid.
The number 112
112 is the European emergency number. The call is free and works throughout the country. Call when someone's life or health is at risk: a person who is unconscious, not breathing normally, with severe chest pain, with bleeding that will not stop, with signs of a stroke, having a seizure, with a serious burn, choking, or in a fire. The request is passed to the appropriate services, such as the INEM (medical emergency), the fire brigade or the security forces.
The INEM, Instituto Nacional de Emergência Médica (National Institute of Medical Emergency), coordinates medical emergencies in Portugal. Its urgent patient referral centre (CODU) can give instructions over the phone while the ambulance is on its way.
Calling 112 without need, or by mistake, ties up the lines of people who need them. If you call by mistake, stay on the line and explain, rather than hanging up.
How to make the call
Before calling, take a deep breath. The call handler asks simple questions and you should answer calmly. The essentials to say:
- Where: the address, the company name, the floor or area, a landmark to find the place, and the entrance the ambulance should use;
- What happened: fall, cut, fire, feeling unwell;
- How many people are hurt and in what state: awake, breathing, bleeding;
- The phone number of the person calling.
Then:
- Follow the operator's instructions and hang up only when they say so.
- Use the phone's speaker, so you can help with both hands and hear the instructions.
- If possible, send someone to wait for the ambulance at the entrance and to open gates and lifts.
- If the person's condition changes, call again.
Working with other people
When several people are present, it helps to share out tasks with clear orders directed at a specific person: pointing to someone, with a look or a gesture: "Call 112, please". If you only say "someone call", each person may assume another has already called.
- One person calls 112.
- Another fetches the first aid kit and the AED, if there is one.
- Another waits for the ambulance and keeps the access clear.
- The person helping stays with the casualty and talks to them, reassuring them.
What not to do
- Do not leave the casualty alone without need.
- Do not give food, drink or medicines to someone who is very ill or may lose consciousness, unless the 112 operator says so.
- Do not move a person with a suspected spinal injury, unless there is immediate danger.
- Do not try what you do not know how to do. Someone who cannot perform a technique can help in other ways: calling, summoning help, guiding the ambulance.
After the emergency
The accident must be reported to the supervisor and recorded according to the company's rules. Accidents at work have their own reporting rules, and it is the employer who ensures they are followed.