Introduction
The article is an attempt to help others close a gap that I found in my own preparedness, and to continue my own self-guided education. It pays to review what we have learned by researching and writing as we then naturally focus, and learn more in the process. The article also serves to better organize my approach to this topic, and as an inventory of some of what I have, and would like to acquire in the future. And it serves my friends who will likely outlive me and inherit my supplies. Hopefully, there will be a replacement, so I encourage others to learn. I have solid statistical grounds to expect that my next heart attack will occur soon. I have no way of knowing if that will occur after the coming collapse of this country. Get right with God. It is later than you think.
Disclaimer: I am in no way qualified to authoritatively write on medical topics. This article should not be construed as advice. But it is an account of what I have done, or wish to accomplish, and is only a course of action I suggest others might consider. For a lack of money, I had to turn down an offer from a medical school. I do not even have a college degree, yet my background certainly did assist me in this effort. Most of my education on this and other topics came later in life. Like my Grandfather, I am mostly self-taught. True Americans were mostly self-taught pioneers, and are those who built this country. We should continue the tradition. Because of indoctrination, institutionalized education helped destroy that tradition of self-education.
A Medic’s Role
Being a Medic of Last Resort, is about supporting an ongoing security operation. Security will be Job #1, yet without enough healthy fellow survivalists to do that job, and performing all of the other essential chores as well, all of the time, then security will be lacking. We’ve got to be able to patch’em up, and get them back out there. Yet the job of the medic is not only to patch them up. We are more likely to succumb to a bug than a bullet. We also need to prevent a wound of any size from becoming infected and disabling the person. We also need to combat disease within the group from becoming wider-spread, and more debilitating than it otherwise might be. Dysentery and dehydration from Cholera, Giardia, and even from nuclear fallout could do more harm to a security operation than most anticipate.
Prevention is Key
The medic practices preventive medicine. They make sure the food is kept hot enough to prevent food poisoning, and the that the water is safe to drink. The medic prevents a small cut from becoming a life-threatening infection. The medic makes sure that basic sanitation and personal hygiene is maintained, and helps people with their health issues. As I am not a medical professional, none of the following depictions, or opinions herein, are medical advice, but my own thoughts about how I might proceed to treat or handle a serious wound given my obvious lack of education and training.
I’ve saved my dog’s life several times with CPR, oxygen, and other treatments. And I’ve treated livestock, and kept myself out of the hospital many times. That is all the experience I gained. So study up. The challenges in the future could be daunting. Yet, as a ‘jack of all trades’, I know that with enough study, it is possible, more or less, to wear the hat of a Medic of Last Resort as well. Skillsets of many different types, or from different occupations, reinforce other skillsets and knowledge bases. Yet I would still not be an expert in any area.
Are We Prepared to be Medics of Last Resort?
Here is a hypothetical situation to consider. I have several times burnt myself on a wood stove. These burns have been no more serious than a small 2nd degree burn, or what is referred to these days as a ‘partial thickness burn’. But what if one day I stumbled during the night after waking from a deep sleep to stoke the stove on a cold night, and used my arm or hand to break the fall onto that stove? This kind of burn could cross the threshold of severity that is considered a severe ‘third degree’, or ‘complete thickness burn’. The resulting burn could easily be very serious and potentially life-threatening if it involves close to, if not more than 1 percent of my body’s skin area.
This kind of burn destroys all the layers of skin, and exposes the muscle and bone that requires immediate professional medical attention. In normal times, this would entail a trip to the emergency room, or clinic. Can the Medic of Last Resort treat and prevent this wound from becoming life-threatening? Maybe. But certainly not without oral antibiotics, or the ability to keep the wound as sterile as possible.
Infection is likely to set in, and be very difficult to control because there no layer of skin, for protection. Given a third degree burn of any size, I would want to submerse and cool the burn immediately with clean potable water for a period of at least 10 minutes, apply Hydrogel and loosely wrap it with a burn wrap that is essentially a plastic cling wrap, and immediately administer a loading dose of an oral antibiotic, if it were available. The dressing is known as a wet occlusive dressing. I could use a sterile gauze soaked in hydrogel to fill up a void. If the infection gets into the bloodstream then there would be little hope without intravenous antibiotics, and other support found only at a hospital. For this kind of serious burn in a Without Rule Of Law (WROL) event, I purchased plenty of Hydrogel (a brand name of a water jel), plastic cling wrap, conforming stretch gauze, sterile non-adherent pads, antibiotic ointments, and oral antibiotics. I would of course seek the help of professional medical care, if it were available.
Punctures and lacerations, can be equally serious if not handled appropriately. Are we up to the job? There is plenty of information available on the internet that we can learn from. If there is no one else in your family or group who is so capable? If not, then the job falls upon the reader to take action, and somehow make sure that the role of medic is filled. A medic can not only learn how to patch them up, but they can use and develop any resources that would assist them in their mission.
As an example of exploiting possible future resources, fortunately I have had the opportunity to develop a working relationship with several medical professionals over the years, who might help after a collapse. These included a medical doctor who is into wilderness medicine, and a dentist. I am currently setting up a radio network for this purpose. Last night’s testing proved the viability of a low-powered radio network not dependent on high-powered mountaintop repeaters that might not be sustainable in the future. The first leg of this network has been established. If expanded, this would be network of low-powered and simple-to-operate transceivers. It could be used by medical professionals who can use a radio to talk through a diagnosis and determine the best course of treatment.
However, during the future tumultuous times ahead, professional medical help might not be available for one reason or another. And the danger of traveling to their location could outweigh the risks involved with the injury. I would not want to risk the lives of friends and family unnecessarily to transport one victim who is not facing immediate death. In such a future we can envision, we should assume that we would likely be ‘on our own’, and must to do the best we can with what we got, and where we are at.
In the past, JWR referred to this kind of situation as “You’re on your own” (YOYO) time. We should assume that we will indeed be on our own, and that no one is coming to help. If there were a local community college nearby that offers an EMT course, that would be my first and best choice venue to get the necessary knowledge and skills, as we would not only receive classroom education, but just as important, actual hands-on training.
(To be continued tomorrow, in Part 2.)