Abstract

BARREIRO RAMOS, Héctor; BARREIRO PENARANDA, Adriana; FERNANDEZ VIERA, Eugenio  and  MARRERO MARTIN, Ofelia. Certificate of first aid to the injured. Rev Cubana Med Gen Integr [online]. 2004, vol.20, n.4. ISSN 0864-2125.

The certificate of first aid to the injured is one of the most transcendental and important medicolegal documents issued by the physician; however, its right making is far from being the adequate, as it has been proved by different papers and by the empiric observation of those dealing with it every day. Most of these papers have not been published and those which have date from more than a decade and, therefore, access to this information source is very limited. On the other hand, the time devoted in undergraduate education to explain the acting of the physician when he receives an injured person and the making of this certificate is very little, hardly 90 minutes, and it is impossible to explain to the student the great juridical and social signficance of this acting. The postgraduate courses conducted for the solution and management of this issue are just a few. All this led us to reconsider the topic and to provide a complementation in some aspects and updating in others for medical students and physicians in order to convey them the necesary knowledge so that this medicolegal document has the required quality. Among other aspects, the criteria on the imminent danger for life and the concept of deformity are cleared up and discussed, and the general paremeters for making this document, as well as a series of important elements based on the review of papers presented by physicians, lawyers and professionals, are given.

Keywords : Certificate of first aid to the injured, imminent danger; deformity; disability; sequelae.