Anthony Nozinovic
Mrs. Crusius
English 1302. Composition II.
May 2015

How to Treat a Bleeding Arm Wound

It is a normal part of life to develop an arm wound from a minor/major accident or injury. Most people are able heal simple arm wounds without difficulty. However, because of medical conditions or wound complexity, an arm wound might have trouble healing on its own. When healing an arm wound, the way to approach it is by cleaning, applying pressure, and stopping blood flow. Always start by cleaning and washing your own hands. When there is a tear in the skin, there is a high possibility of an infection. So by cleaning your hands with soap and water, you won’t be spreading infection to this open wound. If there’s any kind of particles inside the wound like dirt and pebbles, you’re going to want to get those out. Usually just with a clean cloth, rubbing it will get it out. However, that way doesn’t feel that great but it will get all the stuff out. You don’t want to leave the dirt in the wound because that would lead to infection as well. Also, if you have tweezers, you can dip them in alcohol and try plucking all the stuff out. Once everything is clean and there’s no more dirt and particles in the wound, you’re going to want to put some antibiotic ointment on the wound and cover it up with a bandage. With the bandage, you want to apply direct pressure on the arm wound. You want to also make sure that you apply the direct pressure toward the blood vessels to control the bleeding. Then you will apply clean gauge around the arm wound to help hold the bandage in place. Now if hemorrhage, escape of blood from a ruptured blood vessel, is left alone and not treated the person will die from it. So that’s why it’s important to treat the hemorrhage as soon as possible. Now if this isn’t going to be good enough to stop the bleeding, you might also want to elevate the arm above your heart. If the bleeding still continues, then we would apply pressure to a pressure point. There’s a pressure point right below the muscle in the upper arm and you will probably feel it pulsating. Once, you found the pressure