Our children and youth are our future. First aid saves our future.

Just as it is not possible for emergency patients or injured people to reach a healthcare institution on time, it is also not always possible for ambulances and emergency medical personnel to arrive at the scene on time. During this period, the survival of the patient and injured person is closely related to the level of first aid and basic life support knowledge of her and the people around her/his. Many of our people either die or recover with sequelae due to first aid and basic life support applications that are not given at the scene or are performed incorrectly in case of urgency/emergency health problems such as work accidents, traffic accidents, home accidents, allergic reactions, heart attacks, and strokes.

It has been observed that individuals with increased first aid knowledge save both their own lives and the lives of others around them in emergency situations they encounter throughout their lives.

Every person who receives first aid training should be able to administer first aid. However, the number of people receiving first aid training in our country is quite low. In order to increase this number, first aid training should be mandatory at student level and completion should be a goal.

Our book "First Aid and Basic Life Support" has been prepared to provide resources so that first aid training begins at the student level and can be provided in all faculties and departments of universities in our country, especially Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa. The content of this resource book has been prepared on the basis of the latest scientific studies, simplified to a level that everyone can understand, summarized with tables, reinforced with repetitions and visualized with original pictures.

Most of the images were originally obtained with the participation of volunteers for this educational book. In some images, photographs from the online first aid training given to our teachers through the ÖBA-Teacher Information Network in 2022, together with the MEB (Republic of Türkiye Ministry of National Education) first aid trainers of Prof. Dr. Doğaç Niyazi ÖZÜÇELİK, were used. Institutional and individual approvals were received for the images from MEB officials, MEB first aid trainers, volunteers and their families. I would like to thank the MEB officials and our volunteers for their support.

I would like to thank the administrators of Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa for ensuring that the book "First Aid and Basic Life Support", which will contribute not only to our own students but also to other students in our country, is published within the scope of the "100 Books for the 100th Anniversary of the Republic" project in memory of the 100th anniversary of the founding of our Republic of Türkiye. I would also like to thank everyone who contributed to this book.

                                                                                                                      Prof. Dr. Doğaç Niyazi ÖZÜÇELİK