Wilderness First Aid

We went to the Wilderness First Aid class, taught by Brian and Jason. First we learned the common basics: ABC and he had a DE. That's Airway, Breathing, Circulation, which are the first things you need to check for and re-establish if they aren't functioning. "D" was "disability" meaning obvious serious injury to or dismemberment of limbs, and I can't remember what "e" is. There's also "EVPU". Eyes, which means, are they alert enough to see you? Verbal, which means can they talk to you? Pain, which means if you do something like squeeze a little hard on their shoulder (think "spock grip") do they respond with a grimace or other indicator that they feel discomfort/pain? Unresponsive means, well, it's obvious.

Here's Brian torturing, er...I mean demonstrating First Aid techniques on Jason.
His general advice was to plug the holes (the ones that AREN'T supposed to be there), with anything. If it's close enough, it's good enough. You need to stop the bleeding. In their emergency responder kits they keep cool things like Celox, which is a powder you can sprinkle on the bleeding places and it'll clot the blood. Things like that can be ordered from Chinook Medical (http://www.chinookmed.com/), as well as other medical supply sites. He said you can also use instant mashed potato powder/flakes. Potato starch is naturally sterile.

You can sterilize a bandage with water purifier from your pack, such as chlorine or iodine tablets. A bandage cloth (such as a t-shirt) can be laid in the sun for 15 minutes or so to sterilize it, especially if it's a light color. Any drinkable water can be used to wash a wound. You don't need to use anything fancy. A 60 cc. syringe is great to have in your first aid kit for washing wounds. Other things that will help blood to clot are crushed dandelion root and the underside of a Mullein leaf.

Most wounds don't need field stitching. Taping is better since any dirt or bacteria inside the wound can cause infection, and if you stitch it shut, the bad stuff can't get out. If you just HAVE to stitch, there's a handy thing called a skin stapler, also available from Chinook Medical.

He demonstrated several types of tourniquets. Each of us need to research and find which one we like best and what we can afford. You don't apply them to stop bleeding. You only use them for a severed or mostly-severed limb. You place them 1" to 1 1/2" above the injury. Splints can be field-rigged with sticks, etc., but if you want something for your medical kit there's the "Sam Splint" and the cheaper "Dixie Splint".

To diagnose a sprained ankle, squeeze the two leg bones together with your hand just above the ankle. If the person has a surge of pain from that, the ankle is possibly broken. Otherwise it's probably a sprain. You can take the triangular bandage from your first aid kit (what? you don't have one???) and wrap it. Let's see if I can describe what he did...roll it into a long "rope", go under the foot with the middle of it, pull it up each side of the foot, behind the ankle and cross it, back around to the front, pull the ends under the ones that come up from under the foot, and tie it in front of the ankle.

You can go to their website for more information and some videos of the techniques he showed us: http://raems.com/. That stands for "Remote Areas Emergency Medicine and Survival". It's a great site with lots of information. (After I got home I checked it out)

Last but not least, Brian enthralled us with his demonstration of using a catheter to stop a nose bleed. You really just had to be there...