Shock
Shock is the name given to the condition where not enough oxygen is reaching the brain. There are lots of reasons for this but the most common one is that there isn’t enough blood.
If someone hasn’t got enough blood, they’ll start to look a funny colour. They may faint, and you might think they’re breathing a bit quickly.
If someone hasn’t got enough blood, they really need some more. They need to go to hospital to get some more blood, so you need to call an ambulance. While you’re waiting for the ambulance to arrive, you need to make sure they don’t loose any more blood- so stop any bleeding that you can see. If you can’t see any blood, lie the person down (so they don’t hurt themselves if they faint) and put their legs on a chair. Blood finds it easier to travel down hill, so all the blood that was in the legs, will rush back to the heart, ready to be pumped to the brain.
Another common type of shock is ‘anaphylactic shock’. This happens when someone is allergic to something, and all their blood vessels get leaky. All the blood leaks out, meaning that enough oxygen can’t get to the brain again.
Anyone with this type of shock needs to go to hospital straight away, so they can have some medicine to stop the blood vessels leaking.
If someone knows they’re allergic to something, they might carry some medication on them - an epi-pen. If they are awake enough, help them find it, then let them use it. They will still need to go to hospital though.