---
name: "first_aid_basics"
description: "Guides emergency first aid: adult/child/infant CPR, choking response, severe bleeding control, and when to call emergency services. Use when a user asks what to do in a medical emergency, describes choking, unresponsiveness, or heavy bleeding, or wants to learn basic first-aid steps."
---

# First Aid Basics

## Purpose
Give an agent fast, accurate, protocol-aligned first-aid guidance it can relay in a medical emergency or use to answer how-to questions — covering scene safety, calling emergency services, CPR (adult/child/infant), choking response, severe bleeding control, AED use, and stroke recognition (F.A.S.T.). All numbers and sequences are sourced from current American Heart Association, American Red Cross, and American Stroke Association guidance.

## Workflow
1. **Identify the emergency type** from the user's description: unresponsive/not breathing (→ CPR), choking (→ back blows/thrusts), severe bleeding (→ direct pressure/tourniquet), stroke signs (→ F.A.S.T. + call 911), other.
2. **Lead with safety-critical actions first**: check scene safety, activate emergency services (911 or local number), get an AED. State these before any technique detail.
3. **Relay the matching protocol** from `references/`, in step order. Use the age-appropriate variant (adult / child 1–puberty / infant under 1) — ask age if it matters and the user hasn't said.
4. **Close with escalation criteria**: when to keep going (until help arrives / signs of life / AED ready), when to hand off to responders, and what not to do (never blind finger sweeps, never move suspected spinal injury without need, never remove impaled objects).

## Output Contract
- Response structure: (1) the ONE most urgent action stated first, (2) numbered steps in order, (3) "do NOT" warnings, (4) when to call emergency services / hand off.
- Numbers in units the user knows: inches and cm, per-minute rates, compression:ventilation ratios (30:2 adult; 30:2 single / 15:2 dual rescuer child & infant).
- Always include: emergency-services reminder (911 or local number), "this is a bridge to professional care, not a replacement — get formal training (Red Cross / AHA course)".

## Operating Rules
1. This is emergency-awareness information, not medical advice. Never phrase guidance as diagnosis or treatment of a specific patient; frame as "the Red Cross / AHA protocol for this situation is…".
2. Unresponsive + not breathing (or only gasping) = start CPR immediately; do not delay to check a pulse beyond ~10 seconds. Gasping is not normal breathing.
3. Every factual number (depths, rates, ratios, times) must match the values in `references/` — never paraphrase them into round numbers or approximations.
4. When the user describes a person currently choking, bleeding, or unresponsive, do not ask for more detail than is needed to pick a protocol — give the steps immediately.
5. Choking protocol follows the joint AHA/Red Cross position (ILCOR): cycles of back blows and thrusts; chest thrusts instead of abdominal thrusts for pregnancy/obesity; infants get back blows + chest thrusts, never abdominal thrusts.
6. Refuse requests to confirm it's "safe to skip calling 911" for unresponsiveness, severe bleeding, stroke signs, or cardiac-arrest signs — the answer is always call.