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Show septic directly into the wound. If the wound had dirt ground in flush it out with water. Don't use salves and ointments on an open wound. If the cut is covered with grease, wash it out with a solvent, sol-vent, such as gasoline or lighter light-er fluid or, if it's available ether. After stopping bleeding and and cleansing the wound, next comes closing the cut t healing to begin. in gashes, a piece 0f aV tape often is enough f or deeper cuts may , suturing by physician If the wound is Cl0sr'd erly, it will heal more If this can't be accomC easily by first aid, See 'a , tor. How to treat cuts, gashes The following is one of a series of articles furnished by the Utah State Medical Assoc. and published In cooperation with the local newspaper. These articles are scheduled to appear ap-pear every other week throughout through-out the year in an effort to better acquaint you with problems prob-lems of health, and designed to improve the well-being of the people of Utah. Almost all of us suffer a cut or gash now and then. The cut hurts, it bleeds, it might get infected, it might cause tetanus. Even minor cuts and lacerations deserve respect (and prompt attention. The first thing to do when you gash your hand on a nail or smash a finger while hooking hook-ing a mower to a tractor is to stop the bleeding. Some tiny little cuts bleed profusely. And sometimes a really serious gash bleeds verylittle. Cuts on the head, hands and feet usually usu-ally bleed more because of excellent ex-cellent blood supply to those parts. A wound sustained from a sharp object, which might puncture an artery, usually bleeds more than the wound from a blunt object, which crushes blood vessels. In my opinion, the first aid technique mentioned in many handbooks" of using pressure points to, control bleeding is, at best, doubtful. This means applying pressure to the artery ar-tery supplying blood to the injured' in-jured' part. Simple pressure directly di-rectly over the cut will do a better job of controling bleeding bleed-ing in all but the most serious ser-ious wounds. Keep up the pressure pres-sure long enough to ,allow the severed vessels to contract and for the blood to clot. Tourniquets can be ' dangerous danger-ous and should be used only as a last resort. Constriction of a part for too long can cause gangrene. Ice or cold packs are ineffective in controling con-troling bleeding. Control of infection is the next step after bleeding is stopped. This means cleansing the wound. Warm, soapy water wat-er is best, particularly if the soap contains hexachlorophene. Avoid pouring a strong anti- |