Category: First Aid/Medical

Letter Re: Vasovagal Response

Jim, I had an interesting experience yesterday. I assisted a friend who is a Physician’s Assistant (PA) in removing a Lymphoma (fatty tumor) from my wife’s back. An approximately 4″ long incision was required to excise the tumor. We also went almost an inch deep. Now I have seen the worst you can see as relates to the destruction of the human body in seven years as a volunteer fireman including a very nasty plane crash without feeling ill at all. I had never heard of a Vasovagal [syncope] response before but experienced it first hand during the surgery. About …


Poll Results: Best Occupations for Both Before and After TEOTWAWKI

In no particular order, the following are the first batch of responses to my poll question on the best occupations or home businesses for both before and after TEOTWAWKI: Locksmith/Home security systems installer/repairman — Beekeeping Small scale vegetable gardening. Growing herbs (medicinal) — 1) Electricity: a. Recharge batteries for folks, rebuild the bad batteries, and lots of folks don’t know squat about electricity for lighting, etc. Got several methods: Solar, miscellaneous generators powered by hand, animal, wind and even the old one lung gas engine with that darn heavy flywheel. b. Also use the above for communications when there aren’t …


Letter Re: Kanban: America’s Ubiquitous “Just in Time” Inventory System–A Fragile House of Cards

Jim, I’ve heard many, many people bash our ‘just in time’ distribution model. but, I’ve never heard of even a single military official from any other country brag or boast of the same assertions. Our ‘just in time’ delivery of goods is one of the most survivable, re-configurable and defend-able supply chains ever in the history of mankind. It can grow to surge resources into a disaster area, it can shrink to conserve fuel, it presents fast moving small targets of no individual strategic significance, it can bypass destroyed cities, it can use improvised warehouses, it can cluster around railway …


Wound Care: An Emergency Room Doctor’s Perspective, by E.C.W., MD

1

Arguably the most important factor in wound healing is the potential for infection. Ever since Semmelweis and Lister demonstrated that strict hand washing made a tremendous difference in reducing the incidence of postoperative infections and puerperal fever after childbirth, health care workers have tried to refine methods for decreasing bacterial contamination of wounds in an effort to avoid infection. Thus we have some practitioners who still soak wounds in betadine solutions lengthily even though more modern research has shown that this kills viable tissue and makes wounds less amenable to suturing. For the concerned individual who must deal with a …


Letter Re: Another Use for Diatomaceous Earth: Curing Bowel Infestations

Jim: Food grade diatomaceous earth (DE)–not the swimming pool grade-will flush your system of parasites. In addition, the scientific literature states DE is shown to remove methyl mercury, virus and more. I “accidentally” cured myself of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) while using it, just in case I had worms. I had been feeding it to my cattle (works great!) and decided to take some myself. No more IBS? I am no doctor; however, the first thing I would do for ulcers/IBS/Crohns/divertic ailments, would be to dose myself with DE, as I now suspect that microscopic uglies are involved in all …


Letter Re: Kanban: America’s Ubiquitous “Just in Time” Inventory System–A Fragile House of Cards

Jim, Having both worked in a hospital and worked for hospitals for the last 18 years I must loudly concur with “Mike the MD in Missouri”. As a service specialist in an un-named Level 1 trauma center I had access to almost every inch of the facility(s) including the warehouses where we stored our unused equipment and all the patient care products. Naturally I was able to assess the on hand stock versus the use and replenish rates at a glance. I was always amazed at how little there actually was for a hospital in a city of 150,000 people. …


Letter Re: Kanban: America’s Ubiquitous “Just in Time” Inventory System–A Fragile House of Cards

James: This “just in time” thinking has transformed the medical industry, especially hospitals. The “Central Supply” or stockpile in hospitals has disappeared and in its place are vendors with same day and next day shipping. This includes band-aids, medications, ventilators, equipment etc. In the business setting it makes sense, but in the medical setting it often falters on a day to day basis. In a crisis medical event, surge capacity is limited to how fast the vendors can respond. In a contained disaster, vendors can shift needed supplies to a hospital in as little as several hours. But, in a …


Letter Re: The CDC’s New “Five Categories” for Pandemic Severity

Mr. Rawles, Given the unique nature of a flu pandemic, (or a “biological” attack), how would one assemble their retreat group after possible outbreak in one’s immediate area, (within 50 miles) with confidence? The vehicle alone that they travel in could be laden with contamination and the door handles become a scary transmission device. Seeing is believing, invisible is invisible. “To Group or not to Group?”, that is the question. – The Wanderer JWR Replies: There is no way to be certain to avoid exposure if an influenza outbreak is in close proximity. But odds are that the first outbreaks …


Letter Re: Veterinary Antibiotics

Jim, Thank you for responding to my e-mail. As a healthcare professional, many of us are going to have to make some really hard decisions in more difficult times when drugs will no longer be available. If it came down to having someone die or administering an out of date tetracycline, I would be happy to try the tetracycline out of date or not. Tough choices either way. The reason I continue this discussion is due partly to an article I read in The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, March 28, 2000, page A-16. ‘Many Drugs Prove Potent Long Past Expiration …


The CDC’s New “Five Categories” for Pandemic Severity

Several SurvivalBlog readers mentioned an article that ran recently in the New York Times: U.S. Issues Guidelines in Case of Flu Pandemic. The article begins: “Cities should close schools for up to three months in the event of a severe flu outbreak, ball games and movies should be canceled and working hours staggered so subways and buses are less crowded, the federal government advised today in issuing new pandemic flu guidelines to states and cities. Health officials acknowledged that such measures would hugely disrupt public life, but they argued that these measure would buy the time needed to produce vaccines …


Letter Re: Veterinary Antibiotics

All this discussion of antibiotic nephrotoxicity on a “non-medical” forum reminds me of just why modern medical education is so onerous, including (in the U.S.) four hard years of school — two mostly classroom, two mostly clinical — followed by many more years of clinical residency training. During such training, one encounters lots of side effects of the various highly potent chemical agents known as pharmaceuticals. Watching out for the kidneys is one reason hospitalized patients have so much blood drawn over and over again (to monitor BUN [blood urea nitrogen] and creatinine, markers for renal function). I guess the …


Letter Re: Veterinary Antibiotics

Jim: All this talk on Tetracyclines and their dangers. Show me the research! I have only been able to find one case study of one person who became nephrotoxic on TTC’s/Doxy. Speculation is interesting, but research is really important in this circumstance. Thanks, – Russ JWR Replies: This issue is clearly one that is still not fully settled in medical circles. Part of the problem seems to be that there are so many causes of renal failure, and a precise cause is sometimes difficult to pinpoint. There seems to be different “camps” of opinion regarding tetracycline (and similar antibiotics in …


Two Letters Re: Veterinary Antibiotics

James: Re: the assertion: “Two weeks after the expiration date, these agents can and frequently do become nephrotoxic” No, they always are nephrotoxic – it is dose related. The above statement is just plain wrong. Mis-dosing causes renal failure – which is an equally valid concern for do it yourselfers using vet abs – but not the d**n expiry date – I thought we had put the tetracycline debate to rest – in the 80’s it composition was unstable – it broke down 6-12 months post-expiry date and became potentially toxic from the degradation products of the binder. Since late-1980s, …


Letter Re: Veterinary Antibiotics

Jim: As an emergency room physician in rural East Tennessee and SW Virginia, I’ve seen a number of “casualties” from human use of animal antibiotics. First, the binders used in vet meds are not tested, usually, for lack of general reactivity in humans; if your genetic haplotypes are extremely different from cows and pigs, you might have an allergic reaction to the binder, not the antibiotic; I’ve seen this happen three times, once to bovine antibiotics, and twice to pig meds. Solution: test a small amount of the agent (e.g. 1/8th of a tab) and if no reaction in 24 …