How to Position a Splint

How to Position a Splint
My name is Alv Rios and I am a paramedic with Lansing Mercy Ambulance on behalf of Expert Village. In this clip we are going to go over splinting the injury site in the position that you found it. What this means is just let's just say I have broken my elbow. If my elbow is already bent in this position it's important that you not straighten out the limb in order to splint it. However much easier it might be if the limb was straight you are going to have to compromise and do it in the position you found it. What this means is rather than putting a long splint such as the commercial splint we showed which is meant to have the arm straight, this split would be perfect for an elbow fracture. But if our elbow was in a bent position we can no longer put a splint like this on without compromising the way that we found it. What this means you are going to have to do is put a splint going across the site and tying each part in position. That way you immobilize both bones from moving but you are also not straightening out the limb. The same can be said with maybe a wrist fracture if your wrist was broken backwards make sure you don't straighten it forward. Also if the bone is ever broken through the skin you never want to push it back into the site. Once the bone is broken through the skin it now has bacteria on it. Different microorganisms. By putting it back into to the body you are now introducing that arm or leg or whatever injury site it is to bacterial infections which can be really dangerous and can even result in amputation if left untreated. Another thing you want to to is make sure you pad the voids. This also means that if my knee had a slight bend to it I have to put a little bit of padding underneath this that way when I'm moving it doesn't bend straight. If I were to ever splint my hand I want to make sure that I put something underneath my hand here to keep it in that natural curve. This is not the natural position of your hand. It has a little bit of a curve to it. These are things you need to keep in mind when splinting in the position found.