Letter Re: Medical Response in Hostile Environments Class

Hello All,   We have another Medical Response in Hostile Environments Class scheduled. This class will be on June 10, 11, and 12, 2011.  It will be conducted at the historic Lafayette Hotel, 101 Front Street, in Marietta Ohio.  Marietta is on the Ohio River at Exit 1 off of I-77.  (This is a new location, so our web site may not yet reflect all the updates).  The Hotel is offering a special group rate but you must mention Medical Corps to get it.  If your flight brings you into Cleveland you can get a commuter flight to Parkersburg. (Mid-Ohio …




Thoughts on Medical Training For TEOTWAWKI, by Lumberjack

Many people both on this blog and elsewhere in the prepping community have advocated some form of professional medical training prior to encountering a disaster situation.  While I agree with this sentiment, this article is meant to discuss the limits of some medical training for lay persons in a post-TEOTWAWKI scenario, as well as review the options and advantages of the various training programs available for lay people.  That my qualifications may be known, I am an emergency room RN, an EMT, and an instructor of the Wilderness First Responder and Advanced Wilderness Life Support curriculum, with experience in wildland fire …




Seven Antibiotics to Stockpile and Why, by Cynthia J. Koelker, MD

Assuming your personal physician will help you stockpile antibiotics for TEOTWAWKI, which should you request?  Is there a logical reason to have amoxicillin on hand rather than doxycycline?  Here’s what I would suggest and why. No antibiotic is effective against every type of microbe.  Certain ones will kill aerobic bacteria, others are used for anaerobic bacteria, still others are effective against resistant strains, and certain people are allergic to or intolerant of various antibiotics.  The following are all generics, running about $10 for about a month’s treatment.  Amoxicillin is the old standby for most respiratory infections (probably most of which …




Letter Re: Packing your Bug Out First Aid Kit

Mr. Rawles, After reading J.V.’s article on “Packing your Bug Out First Aid Kit” I feel the need to comment on his approach to anesthesia. Anesthesia as practiced today is safe and effective due to the training and equipment modern medicine provides. The technique of “open drop” anesthesia, which is what J.V. describes, was utilized until the mid 1960s. Aspiration, anesthetic overdose leading to respiratory or cardiac collapse occurred in major hospitals at an alarming rate. Current anesthetic death rates run at 1:30,000 cases, while in the late 1950s (a comprehensive study out of Boston) showed anesthetic mortality of 1:1,500. …




Packing Your Bug Out First Aid Kit, by J.V. in Tacoma

The contents of a bug out first aid kit should not only contain band-aids and other such dressings for minor wounds.  The bug out first aid kit should also contain a vast amount of items in various classifications to be discussed below.  The use of these items has been historically documented, however care should be used in their administration and these items should be used only as a last result when no other means of medical care are available.  Persons should use these items if death is imminent and the risk of using these items would not sufficiently out weigh …




Letter Re: Asthma Rescue Inhalers

Hi Jim and Lily, Thanks for all you do.  I am a registered nurse and have always tried to keep a fairly extensive medical kit along with my BOB in the car.  One of the things I keep is a OTC rescue inhaler, sold under the brand name “Primatene Mist”.  It is epinephrine (adrenalin), plain and simple.  No one in my family has asthma, but I keep it for emergencies, including an anaphylactic reaction to a bee sting etc.  I decided to get a new one the other day as mine was quite outdated.  Wal-Mart still has them.  There is …




The Earthquake in Haiti: First-Hand Lessons From Disaster, by Dr. L.F.

I’m a neurosurgeon, and I had the opportunity to spend a couple weeks in Port Au Prince, Haiti last year, arriving just two weeks after the earthquake in February. This was a great opportunity to serve people in need, but I also benefited from seeing WTSHTF firsthand. I brought in a team of three doctors and two nurses , along with one former Marine turned pastor (for security). When a missionary flight company said: “We can get you in if you can be here day after tomorrow, but we can’t guarantee you a flight out,” a wiser person might have …




The Golden Hours, by Brad H.

The three main factors in determining who lives and who dies WTSHTF are situational awareness, overcoming inertia, and dumb luck. The first two you have some control over. The third is always going to be beyond your control, except for Divine intervention, so don’t worry about it. If you are at mid-span on the Golden Gate Bridge when Al Qaeda sets off a nuke in San Francisco, or “The Big One” hits. In such cases, acceptance of God’s will is all you have to do to prepare. For those who are lucky enough to not be killed immediately when disaster …




Letter Re: Multi-Lens Eyeglasses Sets

James, I have a concern with the recently mentioned “Multi-Lens TEOTWAWKI Vision System“. I have not been able to find anything where they ask for a person’s pupillary distance (PD). This is necessary to ensure the optical centers of the lenses align with the wearer eyes properly. If you have ever looked through a binoculars that were dropped and had the the internal optics misaligned that will give you an idea of what misaligned optical centers can do. A way to measure your PD is discussed here. People purchasing that kit should be aware that they may not work for …




Letter Re: First Aid Kits Are Not Enough

Dear Editor: I read with interest the letter regarding the need for first aid supplies and would like to address a few issues this gentleman and others might wish to consider for the next time an injury occurs. With all due respect to those who recommend buying lots of battle dressings and gauze, it is unlikely that one could truly buy enough to last for a prolonged TEOTWAWKI situation. While it is advisable to have adequate supplies on hand for most minor injuries, people would also do well to learn a few basics of first aid wound care and to …




Letter Re: Multi-Lens Eyeglasses Sets

Dear Sir,        Just to let you know during the last few days we have received an overwhelming number of responses to an online customer survey we performed from SurvivalBlog online readers since your brief mention in the Odds n-Sods section of your blog about our “Multi-Lens TEOTWAWKI Vision System“.   We asked your readers what we could to earn their business and what they felt we could do to improve our packages in hopes of making them more accessible to everyone.   Your readers provided us some profound feedback to which we have quickly responded to. Here is what we have done …




Two Letters Re: First Aid Kits Are Not Enough

James Wesley; As a First Aid instructor trainer (I teach teachers how to teach First Aid) for Emergency First Response Corp., a subsidiary of the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) , I read with great heartache the letter “First Aid Kits are not enough” and felt deeply for it’s author. We teach the importance of self reliance in an emergency situation because there are times, like the one so eloquently shared here, that EMS just isn’t coming. I applaud his courage and level-headedness. One of the things I ask my students is if they have a “well stocked” First …




Two Letters Re: First Aid Kits Are Not Enough

Sir, I very much appreciated reading the recent article about an adventure in wound care during a blizzard. It was chilling! Hope your wife has made a complete recovery! In my many defensive firearms classes with John Farnam, he has held forth the many virtues of the Israeli Battle Dressing (IBD) and its fantastic ability to control hemorrhaging. Had your wife severed an artery, the IBD may have been to only thing that would have saved her, at least would have been the best solution. The IBD has the ability to quickly apply a lot of preferential pressure on a …




Two Letters Re: First Aid Kits Are Not Enough

James,   The letter “First Aid Kits Are not Enough” is a great example of the need for all of us to lay in a large supply of real first aid equipment! The place I would recommend everyone start is the Israeli Battle Dressing (known as the “Emergency Bandage” here in the U.S., and as “IBDs” in military and police circles). They generally go for $5-6 on the net, and can be had cheaper in quantity. I know I can’t go to any drug store and secure first aid materials that will do what it does for $5!   IBDs are manufactured …




Letter Re: First Aid Kits Are Not Enough

I have been a prepper for a while and I have always regarded my current location in rural West Virginia a safe place for WTSHTF. However I failed to recognize it’s vulnerabilities in the time before that happens. To set the stage I live just west of the Shenandoah Valley, the nearest hospital is 20 miles away over a mountain chain in Virginia, a 45 minute drive during good weather. It had been snowing for two days and this route happened to be closed to all but emergency vehicles. The other hospital was a two hour drive away, again, snowed …