The History of First Aid

First Aid has a complex history. Though it was first developed hundreds of years ago, First Aid served similar--if not the same--purposes it does now. 

Originally, First Aid was required during warfare. In 1099, a group of religious knights who knew how to deliver medical care created the Order of St. John to treat injuries from the battleground. Men who did not receive timely medical attention during those times usually passed away. In this situation, these laypersons were able to provide something very similar to the First Aid we see today. 

Then, in the mid-1800s, the First International Geneva Convention was held and the Red Cross was created, once again for similar reasons as the Order of St. John was. The Red Cross’ purpose was to provide aid for injured and ill soldiers on the battlefield. Consequently, the Red Cross trained soldiers to be able to give medical care and attention to each other before the true medical professionals arrived. 

In 1878, Surgeon-Major Peter Shepherd and Colonel Francis Duncan, who were two military officers, brought to light how important it was for people to know how to bandage in splint wounds on the battlefield. Under the St. John Ambulance Association, they taught civilians First Aid skills, including bandaging and splinting--which they emphasized earlier. In this year, the term “First Aid” was created: a combination of the words “first treatment” and “National Aid”.

Ten years after that, in 1888, Johnson & Johnson invented the first First Aid kit. A company founder named Robert Wood Johnson conversed with Denver & Rio Grande Railway chief surgeon during a train ride to Colorado. The surgeon talked to Johnson about the dangerous aspects of railroad construction. 12,000 railroad workers and operators died each year from disasters or accidents--which were almost always death-causing. There wasn’t adequate supplies to treat medical injuries from railroad construction, and they couldn’t always get to a doctor because the closest hospital was a great distance away. Learning all this from the surgeon, Johnson decided to take this opportunity and create a commercial First Aid kit. 

You can see over the years, even though First Aid aspects were created in different places and different situations, they all worked to help injured people. From trained knights to civilians, to providing medical supplies for railroad workers, First Aid always served to assist in times of need.

SOURCES CITED:

“History of First Aid: When Was the First Aid Kit Invented and Who Invented It | Johnson & Johnson Our Story.” Ourstory.jnj.com, 27 June 2017, ourstory.jnj.com/birth-first-aid-kit.

“First Aid: From Witchdoctors & Religious Knights to Modern Doctors.” MedicineNet, MedicineNet, 13 June 2018, www.medicinenet.com/first_aid_witchdoctors_and_religious_knights/views.htm.

admin. “First Aid: The History, Principles, and Techniques of First Aid.” Online Safety Trainer, 8 Aug. 2023, www.onlinesafetytrainer.com/first-aid-the-history-principles-and-techniques-of-first-aid/.

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Written by: Amrutha Kothakota

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