Hello.
I would like your help to relieve me from the panic that i have lately since I came in aid to a person in a scooter accident.
I live in Europe and a couple of days ago i witnessed a motorbike (scooter, 50cc small bike) accident in my town.
The accident was at night, wet roads.. The person did not collide with any car but had a slippery drop, severely cutting his leg with his own bike (no idea how, probably with some metalic particle of his own bike when falling and grinding on floor). It was the kind of cut that bleeds non stop, pretty open.
I ran over, got the person straight and tied my belt around his leg strongly to prevent too much bleeding and exerted some pressure on wound to reduce bleeding, which worked fairly well.. Got the person in the right position and kept him talking.
Emergency came relatively fast...
I'll pass on the details.. Here is what struck me after he was taken to ER:
1) I got a lot of blood on my hands.. It was very fresh and immediately from the wound (so little air contact)
2) I had little cuts on my hands (due to winter and cold weather) on my fingers afterwards.. The kind of cuts that open and u can see some red flesh, slight bleeding, mostly on my knuckles, and where the fingers bend (top part). Probably fairly superficial, mot cuts about 3-5mm long and 1mm wide. No idea bout depth but surely not deep.
Now I know that HIV dies pretty fast when in contact with air.. But the problem is that the blood was immediately coming freshly onto my hands straight from the wound and my cuts were pretty recent (probably same day), still red, but no longer bleeding.
I got no blood in my eyes or anything like that.
I know i helped this guy but here we dont get news about him after the emergency comes to take him so I have no idea about his hiv status or any other infections (i know it is unlikely but still...)
So please, what are your thoughts? Am I at risk with my cuts receiving fresh blood straight from the wound?
Many thanks for your help