Conclusiones Parciales

Several years ago a brake failure in an old jeep thrust me into a survival episode about seventeen miles from an Arizona public highway. A sturdy pine tree stopped the runaway jeep just before it would have plunged over a cliff into the Salt River Canyon, but the impact left me with blood spurting from my head. It was obvious I had severed an artery. Fortunately, my partner knew what to do.

He pressed hard against my temples with the heels of his hands. The spurts diminished to drips, and in about ten minutes the bleeding had virtually stopped. Then he walked out for help. His knowledge had turned a very serious survival situation into an education adventure.

Probably nothing complicates a survival experience as much as an injury. Yet many people become survivors simply because they get hurt. Even a minor injury in the outdoors can turn a pleasant afternoon into a dire emergency.

You can minimize the limitations of most injuries and some illnesses by taking simple but appropriate action. It's not likely that you will be able to cure serious problems, but you can control the impact of common injuries on your survival. The actions you take in your own behalf or to help an injured partner in a survival situation are not really first aid. Courses in first aid and Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) classes deal with what to do until a doctor can take over.

First aid is geared to relatively short-term treatment intended to stabilize an injury until professional help can be obtained. There are two differences between first aid and "survival medicine." First, under survival conditions you don't know how long it will be until you can get professional treatment. Secondly, you may have to use or even misuse the injured part for higher priority problems—like shelter building or signaling. You cannot make treating your injury your sole function, but you must minimize its impact on your situation.

Let's look at some common survival injuries and see what you can do.

Pain

The pain associated with many injuries may be serious enough under survival conditions to warrant attention as a separate problem. Individual sensitivity and reaction to pain varies

tremendously. Identical injuries in two people may produce nearly disabling agony in one while the other suffers only minor discomfort.

An Air Force survival manual states that you can tolerate any amount of pain if your goals are high enough. That may be overstating it a bit, but keeping busy and concentrating on the business of getting rescued can certainly reduce the impact of pain.

Your body announces damage or disease by flashing a pain warning. It reminds you to rest that part. Under normal conditions this is good; but when your life depends upon your ability to deal with survival problems, you may have to ignore the warning. Survival case histories are full of instances where people did just that.

First, understand that pain is a signal and not dangerous in itself. Secondly, concentrate on what

needs to be done. Stay busy and keep your goal in mind. You want to get home! So work at that.

Do not cater to your pain when your survival is at stake. Finally, try to look upon your pain as a temporary discomfort that can be tolerated. Naturally, you want to avoid aggravating the pain or the injury that is causing it, but remember to "keep first things first."

Shock

Shock may be the result of heavy bleeding, severe pain, burns, allergies, infection or

psychological factors such as the sight of an injury to yourself or someone else. Any of these causes may be present in a survival episode. The result is the same regardless of the cause. Blood circulation to the brain is disrupted and rather predictable symptoms appear.

If you have ever experienced shock, it is unlikely you will forget the symptoms. The light-headed, weak, half sick, unreal feeling is indelible. If you have never felt shock or if you are watching for it in someone else, here are the signs you can expect to see:

1. The skin will feel cold and clammy.

2. Breathing rate will increase and may be quick and shallow or irregular and gasping.

3. Pulse will be weak and rapid.

4. Nausea or vomiting is likely.

5. There will be some mental confusion.

There are later, more severe symptoms—but you have to catch and treat shock before they occur.

Regardless of the cause, you can use one standard treatment:

1. Control bleeding (if there is any).

2. Drink plenty of fluids. (But do not try to give them to someone who is unconscious.) 3. Lie down, preferably with the head slightly lower than the feet, and rest until the

symptoms pass. (For a head wound, you elevate the feet without lowering the head.) 4. Stay warm, put on extra clothes; if a sleeping bag is available, get into it.

Bleeding

Blood loss from a wound can usually be controlled by direct pressure. Certainly, that is the first method you should try. Take a clean pad (sterile if you have it) and press it firmly against the wound. Hold it there until the bleeding is controlled. You may have to wrap the pad in place to hold the pressure.

If direct pressure doesn't work or you can't reach the wound, vou can apply pressure between the

wound and the heart. Major arteries run very close to the surface at several points on your body.

These "pressure points" offer an opportunity to restrict the flow of blood from the heart to the wound. You can use your hand to press against these arteries or you can push the pressure point against some padded object.

If the wound is on an arm or leg and neither pressure on the wound nor pressure on the artery supplying blood controls the bleeding, a tourniquet is a last resort—a desperation move. It can save your life, but it may cost you the limb if rescue is delayed very long. Tourniquets are so effective in controlling the flow of blood that they starve the limb of virtually all circulation. The bleeding will stop, but so will the flow of life-giving oxygen.

If you leave the tourniquet in place, you may lose the limb due to prolonged lack of oxygen.

However, if you release it, the rush of blood into the limb can reduce your blood pressure enough to send you into deep shock—the kind you cannot take care of yourself.