Category: First Aid/Medical

Ebola Unafraid: A Preliminary Ebola Treatment Protocol, by ShepherdFarmerGeek – Part 1

In a few days my former-Navy-nurse daughter will fly out to help stand up a brand new 100-bed treatment facility for the International Rescue Committee in Liberia. Ebola is not a theoretical threat anymore. Now it’s personal. My daughter has always loved being in the thick of things and has been fascinated with Ebola since childhood. Now, in just a matter of days, she will walk into a room filled with sick and dying Ebola patients, and all her training, grit, and compassion will be tested. She will eventually come home on a rotation and be under medical isolation here, …


Surviving Kidney Dialysis in a Down-Grid Scenario, by G.C.

The power-grid goes down two hours before you are scheduled to begin your next round of hemodialysis at a clinic thirty-five miles away. Using the Ham radio, you discover through your III Percent communications network that all power is down across the southern sector. There is little hope of it being restored in the foreseeable future. The clinic should have a back-up generator in place, so (other than an inconvenience) your treatment should go ahead as planned. You lock the place down, turn on the alarms, and then you and the wife head for the clinic. As usual, when you …


Challenge of Prepping, by R.W.

How My Insights Have Changed With Time I became interested in prepping and survival 12 years ago. It wasn’t so much an event or reading about survival, it was what I believe was a message from God. I was 49 years old and had just finished leading a Bible study in a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota. On the way home, my wife and I stopped at a Dairy Queen for our usual weekend treat. It was a beautiful, summer day with lots of white summer clouds floating by. As we finished and were sitting there enjoying the beautiful downtown skyline …


Letter: Ebola and Hajj

Last year more than two million Muslims from all over the world performed hajj, or travel to Mecca, to participate in the Muslim rituals there. People are in close contact, often shoulder to shoulder and even stepping on each other, for several days as they go through several rituals of hajj. When the hajj is over, these people return to their homes in dozens of countries across the globe. This year 70,000 Nigerians will travel to Mecca, despite that country having more than a dozen confirmed cases of Ebola Zaire, with over 300 suspected of exposure to the deadly virus. …


Two Letters Re: LEO Medic

Hugh: I just want to say “thank you” to this author for such an excellent series. I agree that they are the finest articles I have ever read on SurvivalBlog. As an office-based physician, I do not have the hands-on field experience that will prove so valuable in the future, and I think most physicians are in the same boat. So thanks so much for taking the time to educate all of us. I will read and re-read your articles, as they will save many lives. Primary Care MD o o o Just wanted to add to B.O.’s comment. I’m …


Practical Medicine, by S.S.

This is the first in what I hope will be several articles discussing field medicine in a TEOTWAWKI scenario. The information contained is for informational purposes only and is not meant to replace a call to 911 when that service is available. It also does not replace prompt attention from a medical provider. There are many areas where I purposely “gloss” over the worst-case scenario, so as to more effectively instruct the new first responder on proper mindset. This is not to say that the worst can’t happen; only, honestly if it does, then no amount of Internet training will …


Letter Re: LEO Medic

Dear Hugh, I thought someone would have commented by now, so allow me then to chime in. I thought that LEO Medic’s five part series was outstanding. I’d say it was one of the best series ever on Survival Blog. It was very well written and informative. I especially liked the offering on canine medical care. I can’t imagine how much time it took to put that together, including all the helpful links to the products recommended, so I just wanted to say how much I appreciated the offering to us readers. Consider this a vote that you found a …


Musings of a Law Enforcement Paramedic – Part 5, by a LEO Medic

This is the conclusion of this five-part article, and this section contains information about gear selection, some tips and tricks that I learned along the way, as long as some links to some training videos. Gear Selection I am a huge believer in redundancy. Things break, get dropped, tear, and get lost. When your car is in the shop and you are driving the rental is when you will need the first aid kit you usually keep in the back. Murphy is alive and well. On My Person On my person, pretty much everywhere I go whether on duty or …


Musings of a Law Enforcement Paramedic – Part 4, by LEO Medic

Yesterday, we read about TCCC and the “MARCH” priorities of field care. We’ll continue with this five-part article by focusing, today, on emergency treatment for dogs because many of us will be depending ours after the SHTF. CANINE ALS/TCCC A very interesting aspect of TCCC that we have found is that it has extremely high carry over to the canine world. Two of my squad mates have working law enforcement canines assigned to them. In addition, we utilize many search and rescue dogs, from bloodhounds to labs for various missions and searches. I imagine most of you reading plan on …


Musings of a Law Enforcement Paramedic – Part 3, by LEO Medic

We are continuing to cover the TCCC “MARCH” Field Care. Yesterday, we covered the “M” representing Massive Hemorrhage. Today, we’ll continue with the A-R-C-H portions and more details to conclude the Tactical Combat Casualty Care Lessons. AIRWAY Head tilt/chin lift and jaw thrust are still recommended, as are nasopharyngeal airway (NPA) use. NPAs are preferred over OPA’s (nose vs mouth), because they do not stimulate a gag reflex. I like NPAs because they are a bit more forgiving when it comes to size (nose to ear!) in that fewer sizes fit a wider range of people, and they provide a …


Musings of a Law Enforcement Paramedic – Part 2, by LEO Medic

Yesterday, we read about certifications and training to prepare to “doctor” your family/group in a post-SHTF scenario. Today, we have part two of this five-part article, looking at first aid in some serious, even under fire situations. TCCC Lessons: In addition to teaching basic EMT, I am a Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC or TC3) instructor, as well as an instructor for the associated Trauma First Responder and Law Enforcement First Responder classes. As anyone in EMS or nursing can attest, one of the first tenants of patient care is that the scene must be safe before care is provided. …


Musings of a Law Enforcement Paramedic – Part 1, by LEO Medic

I am a peace officer by trade, but I am also a paramedic. This article will have five sections to it, based on experiences, thoughts, and training that I have seen and done on a few topics that I think may benefit the readers. The daily sections will be: Certifications/Training Options Tactical Combat Casualty Care Lessons/Training Canine ALS/TCCC Selection of Gear Carried Training Tips A lot of this will be geared towards the retreat group that already has some medical training and for the medical coordinator, but it is applicable to someone looking to start somewhere. First, let me share …


Letter Re: How To Survive Without Your Glasses

Regarding the “How to survive without your glasses” post from contributor J.E. on Saturday August 23, those were all good tips, but some folks have sufficiently poor uncorrected vision that rough shapes and colors is all that can be detected beyond a few feet. Planning a self defense strategy with those limitations could wind up being hazardous to everyone around them, friend or foe. Simple myopia (nearsightedness) can be at least partially overcome with magnifying lenses, which is what’s going on when J.E. suggests using binoculars in place of glasses. For those with astigmatism (distortions in the lens of the …


Quarantine Procedures for Ebola and Other Diseases at Your Bugout Location, by F.C.

With the most recent outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, causing the deaths of close to 900 people as of this writing in August 2014, along with reports that some people infected with the disease are now arriving in the U.S., many of us should now be asking this question: In all of my preparedness procedures, how do I protect myself, my family, and others in my bug-out or bug-in location from Ebola and other deadly diseases? What do I do if family and/or friends show up weeks after a full-fledged pandemic has broken out? Do I welcome them instantly …


Introduction to Tactical Combat Casualty Care, by W.H.

This is an introduction to Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC), which is the medical training that U.S. troops are currently taught to save lives on the battlefield. TCCC is the result of collaboration between U.S. Special Operations Command, trauma doctors, and emergency medical personnel to address the shortcoming in combat medicine at the start, and actually well into the current Wars On Terror. It is the combination of good medicine with good tactics. It incorporates some procedures that are proven to save lives but in the past 75 years were shunned in the medical community. TCCC has proven to reduce …