The purpose of this article is to outline a series of medical events my family experienced in an three-month window from Christmas Day 2024 to March 1, 2025, followed by a frank evaluation of what gaps this event chain showed in my family’s preparedness supplies and plans.
As a healthy, early middle-aged male who has been in the preparedness space for nearly 15 years and regularly follows prepping blogs and podcasts, I like to think of myself as being prepared for most of the events that could disrupt the lives of my immediate family. The typical “beans, bullets, and Band-Aids” supplies are kept well stocked along with some more advance preps such as alternative means of power, cooking, and heating. Before these events and having been through the COVID era, I would also have said that my medical preps, the “Band-Aids”, were adequate to address typical medical events of a nuclear family with young school-age children such as cuts, scrapes, burns, fevers, etc. I have also taken steps to be able to provide emergency first aid care for more serious and life-threatening injuries that could require the use of tourniquets, chest seals, etc.
Looking back after the series of events about to be reviewed, my medical preps were focused on two scenarios and left a hole for a third. The two scenarios I was prepared for were, firstly, small house hold injuries or “boo boos” such a cuts, scrapes, and minor burns. The second was life threatening injuries and conditions such as major bleeding. The missing third scenario was the possibility of medium to severe illnesses such as flu, pneumonia, or stomach viruses.Continue reading“Medical Preparedness – An After Action Failure Report, by WV Underground”
