This is the fourth in a series of eleven articles on
the top ten wilderness survival skills, things you should know before you go
into the wilderness. To read the
previous article go HERE
– Author’s Note
The Number Four,
Top Ten Wilderness Survival Skill: First Aid
The
number four, top ten wilderness survival skill on my list, is first aid. A basic understanding of first aid is
something that many people who wander in the wilderness are lacking. This, in my opinion, is because they believe that
wilderness emergencies CAN’T happen to THEM!
But they CAN and they DO and knowing basic survival skills can be the
difference between life and death during a wilderness emergency, and the first
skill you should know is first aid.
The “Rule of Threes”, graphic by the Author.
You can only survive for
about three minutes without air or with severe bleeding. Because of this, the first priority on the “Rule
of Threes” is first aid, because a severe injury can kill you very
quickly. In fact, even a minor wound,
such as a scrape or a small cut, if left untreated and if it becomes infected,
can make you sick and weak and make your continued survival much more
difficult. First aid is important
because you need to know what to do if you or someone you are with is injured,
and has a cut, a broken bone, a burn, a sprain, etc. So, learn first aid!
There are three things
that you can do to improve your first aid skills. First, you should take and successfully
complete at least a basic first aid and CPR course. Second, you should build and always carry a personal
first aid kit, tailored to your skills and how far away from professional first
responders you will be. And third, you
should learn and understand how to use every item in your first aid kit, which
you will learn how to do if you take a first aid course.
Taking and successfully
completing a basic first aid and CPR course is the least you should do, taking
and successfully completing an advanced first aid and CPR course, is even
better! You should look for a Wilderness
First Aid course that “teaches advanced skills to be used in emergencies
when help from professional first responders may be far away”. The American Red Cross offers a “Wilderness
and Remote First Aid” course.
For more information about the American Red Cross Wilderness and Remote First Aid, contact your local American Red Cross Office or go HERE.
Another great course,
offered online by ECSI, is the “BSA Wilderness First Aid
Navigate Course”.
You can find information on the “BSA Wilderness First Aid Navigate Course, offered by ECSI, HERE, photograph by the Author.
Both courses were
designed to meet the Wilderness First Aid Curriculum
of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), which early on recognized the need for
advanced first aid skills that could be used when help from professional first
responders were not quickly available.
“Stop The Bleed” is
another great course that can save a life, because you, or someone else, can bleed
to death from a severe wound in three minutes!
Bleeding, because of a serious injury, is one of the leading causes of
preventable deaths, so learn how to stop it.
This class only focuses on stopping bleeding and should be taken along
with an advanced first aid course, so that you know how to care for all
injuries and emergencies. Generally, “Stop
The Bleed” classes are inexpensive and sometimes even free, so if you are going
to be in a wilderness area, away from professional first responders, take the
course!
For more information on a “Stop The Bleed” course near you, go HERE.
And now, in honor of veterans and Veteran’s Day, a quick story of how
knowing first aid might someday save your life.
You see Howie, who was just 25 years old then, was the navigator of a
B-24 Liberator bomber, supporting the landings on D-Day, June 6, 1944, it was
his 21st combat mission. The
area on which they were to drop their bomb load was socked in with clouds, so
the pilot circled, to give the bombardier more time to find the target. Unfortunately, it also gave the German 88 mm
anti-aircraft gunners the time to zero in on them with their sound ranging
equipment, and open fire! Howard, who
was sitting in the nose of the plane, was hit with a piece of shrapnel,
shattering his left forearm, and causing him to lose consciousness. He was bleeding heavily, and was in danger of
bleeding to death, when one of the other crewmen put a tourniquet on him. However, in his panic and haste, he
incorrectly put the tourniquet around Howie’s wrist, below the hole in his arm,
before returning to his duty station to continue with the mission.
Howard came to at that point, just long enough to realize that the
other airman hadn’t put the tourniquet on correctly. Remembering what he had learned as a Boy
Scout, he moved the tourniquet up his arm, so that it was above the wound in
his lower arm and tightened it down, before passing out, again.
Because he knew first aid and remembered what he had learned, he saved
his own life! And although, he was still
unconscious, he was also still alive several hours later, when the plane landed
in England after completing its mission.
And that is why he was still alive 65 years later and able to tell the
members of Boy Scout Troop 48, about the importance of knowing first aid and
how someday, the life that it saves might be your own!
Don’t forget to come back next week and read “The Top Ten Wilderness
Survival Skills...Number Five©”, where we will talk about the importance of
taking shelter from the wind and the wet.
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The
Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE,
and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free
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announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at
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That
is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!
Notes
1
Unfortunately Howard J. Frohnapple passed away on July 31, 2016, in Gainesville,
Florida. He was born on July 13, 1919, and had just
reached his 97th birthday.
From
“Howard J. Frohnapple”, Williams-Thomas Funeral Homes, https://www.williamsthomasfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Howard-Frohnapple/#!/Obituary,
accessed October 27, 2021
Sources
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