I've seen a lot of threads about first-aid classes and first-aid kits.
All of these things are great, but they presume that definitive medical care (i.e. a hospital) is readily available, and all you need to do is keep a patient alive for a few minutes until help arrives.
Which, of course, made me ask the question "well, what if the only definitive care is you?" and "what if there are no hospitals anymore?".
This article describes what to do with wounds when you're out in the woods (an "austere environment") and you can't get to a hospital easily. It still presumes that evacuation to definitive care is eventually possible (e.g. with tourniquets), but it nonetheless gives great information about what to do with wounds. It also suggests things that people would want to have in a SHTF medical kit, which you won't necessarily have in your "I live in the civilized world" medical kit.
http://www.wemjournal.org/article/S1080-6032(14)00112-4/fulltext
All of these things are great, but they presume that definitive medical care (i.e. a hospital) is readily available, and all you need to do is keep a patient alive for a few minutes until help arrives.
Which, of course, made me ask the question "well, what if the only definitive care is you?" and "what if there are no hospitals anymore?".
This article describes what to do with wounds when you're out in the woods (an "austere environment") and you can't get to a hospital easily. It still presumes that evacuation to definitive care is eventually possible (e.g. with tourniquets), but it nonetheless gives great information about what to do with wounds. It also suggests things that people would want to have in a SHTF medical kit, which you won't necessarily have in your "I live in the civilized world" medical kit.
http://www.wemjournal.org/article/S1080-6032(14)00112-4/fulltext