Emergency Preparedness & Survival Protocols
Most births go well without intervention. The human body has been doing this without hospital equipment for the entirety of human history, and in most uncomplicated labors, the primary role of a birth attendant is to be present, keep things clean, and not interfere with a process that is working. This is important context. The […]
CHILDBIRTH — EMERGENCY Read Post »
A tourniquet stops limb bleeding. Wound packing stops bleeding everywhere else — the neck, the groin, the armpit, the torso. These are the junctional wounds that a tourniquet cannot reach and that kill faster than almost any other injury. Packing a wound correctly buys time. Done wrong, it provides false reassurance while the patient bleeds
Burns are among the most common serious injuries in grid-down scenarios — open fire cooking, rocket stoves, lanterns, pressure canners, improvised heating. They are also among the most mismanaged. The instinct to apply butter, toothpaste, or ice to a burn is deeply embedded in folk practice and wrong in every case. This post covers what
BURNS — FIELD TREATMENT Read Post »
Shock is the body’s failure to deliver adequate oxygen to its tissues. It is not a single event — it is a progressive deterioration that, untreated, ends in organ failure and death. It is also, in many cases, treatable in the field if recognized early and managed correctly. The problem is that shock often looks
SHOCK — RECOGNITION & RESPONSE Read Post »
In normal circumstances, wound infections are an inconvenience. In a grid-down scenario without access to prescription antibiotics or medical care, a wound infection can become a limb-threatening or life-threatening event within days. This is not a hypothetical — infected wounds killed more soldiers in every pre-antibiotic war than combat did. The knowledge that prevents that
INFECTION MANAGEMENT Read Post »
A fracture in a grid-down scenario is a serious problem that becomes a catastrophic one if managed wrong. The fracture itself is rarely the immediate threat to life — the hemorrhage around a major fracture, the neurovascular damage from improper handling, and the infection risk from an open fracture are the killers. Field management of
FRACTURES — FIELD STABILIZATION Read Post »
Hypothermia kills in every season, not just winter. A person who falls into a 60°F lake in summer can be hypothermic within an hour. Wet clothing in 50°F weather with wind strips heat faster than many people believe possible. The mechanism is simple: the body is losing heat faster than it is generating it, and
Heat stroke kills healthy adults in hours. It kills faster in grid-down scenarios where cooling resources are unavailable, where physical labor is unavoidable, and where people push through warning signs because stopping feels like failure. The difference between heat exhaustion — recoverable with rest and fluids — and heat stroke — a medical emergency with
Pressure points are specific anatomical locations where a major artery runs close enough to the surface — or against a bony structure — that external pressure can significantly reduce or stop blood flow to a distal wound. They are not a replacement for tourniquets or wound packing. They are a bridge — a way to
Anaphylaxis kills in minutes. It is one of the fastest-moving medical emergencies in existence — a patient who was fine at breakfast can be dead before lunch from a bee sting or a bite of the wrong food. It is also, with the right intervention, one of the most reversible emergencies in medicine. Epinephrine administered
ALLERGIC REACTION & ANAPHYLAXIS Read Post »
Moving an injured person is one of the highest-risk moments in field trauma management. Done wrong, it converts a survivable injury into a fatal one — a spinal fracture becomes a cord transection, a controlled bleed reopens, a shock patient deteriorates from the exertion. Done right, it gets someone who cannot save themselves to a
IMPROVISED STRETCHER Read Post »
Stop the Bleed Tourniquets are the emergency tool that can turn a fatal bleed into a survivable situation. In survival scenarios – accidents in the wild, car crashes, or any trauma where blood is pumping out fast – a tourniquet steps in when nothing else works. It’s a simple concept: squeeze the limb hard enough