People do not always distinguish what fainting and loss of consciousness are, what is their difference. It is also important to know how to ensure the correct first aid to a person in an unconscious state.
Content
Many people confuse two such completely different conditions as fainting and loss of consciousness. Maybe they are visually similar, but in fact they differ in both symptoms and emergency help that the victim needs.
How to understand this issue so as not to harm? Let's figure it out in detail in this matter.
How to distinguish the loss of consciousness from a fainting?
So it is important to distinguish between the difference between the loss of consciousness and the fainting.
Loss of consciousness
Loss of consciousness is a state when a reaction to any stimuli is lost, and a person does not perceive reality at all. And the fainting that we mentioned at the beginning of the article is only one of the options for this state.
In total, the unconscious state is classified according to the following varieties:
- a tangled consciousness (accompanied by indifference, weak reactions, delirium is observed).
- stunning (excessive drowsiness).
- sopor (lack of arbitrary reactions while maintaining reflexes)
- stupor (numbness).
- fainting (disconnection for a short period).
- coma (unconscious condition due to malfunctions in the brain alignment).
- hypnosis (half-is, caused by suggestion from the outside with complete submission to someone).
Most often, loss of consciousness occurs due to overwork, severe pain and stress, emotional shakes, overheating, severe cooling or dehydration, oxygen starvation, nervous overload.
Classic fainting
The usual fainting is not as threatening for the body as a long loss of consciousness. It lasts, as a rule, for several moments and provokes with vascular spasm, decreasing heart emissions, angina pectoris, oxygen starvation, heart rhythm and the like.
If you often find yourself in a swoon, then you must definitely consult a doctor, since this may be a symptom of a serious illness that you may not even suspect. As a rule, nausea, lack of air, ringing in the ears appear before the swoon, the picture in the eyes, weakness in the whole body, low pressure, dull.
Keep in mind that during a fainting, the victim can accidentally “swallow” the tongue, which can greatly complicate breathing and cause asphyxia.
How to help a person in an unconscious state?
Even if the human brain is damaged, then this can not always be seen with the naked eye (closed injuries, intoxication or internal hemorrhage), and it can also be suffered by suffocation, metabolic disorders, and so on. The unconscious state can last a long time (and have consequences destructive for a person) and not too much, but if the loss of consciousness is too drawn, then it is called a coma.
In case of loss of consciousness, a person’s muscles relax, the eyes roll up, and the pupils practically do not change even when exposed to bright light, the body almost does not respond to irritants and even pain, there is a cramp and a change in the shade of the skin (turning or red), pressure drops, sweat drops out .
It happens that even breathing and heartbeat stops in the body - this is a very dangerous moment that can lead to death. To advise the tragedy, a whole complex of heart and pulmonary exercises should be carried out, having previously called an ambulance.
While you expect the arrival of doctors, the victim should increase air access (open window and door frames, weaken the gate), purify the respiratory tract. If it breathes normally, and the heart beats, there are no head injuries and bleeding, then you need to increase the blood flow to the head, slightly lowering it below the level of the body.
It is good when you can find a first -aid kit nearby: moisten the napkin with ammonia and let it smell a person - this is a great way to return it to life.
Important: an unconscious state that lasts more than five minutes is a very serious symptom, so you can’t do without medical help!
Of course, a person who loses consciousness often causes survivors and indecision in others. But if you are next to such an incident, then you must definitely pull yourself together, call an ambulance and start primary resuscitation in one of the methods described above. Perhaps this will save the life of the victim.
Video: Fainting/Loss of consciousness: Komarovsky
