[at-l] First Aid... for the new guy

[sloetoe at yahoo.com (Sloetoe)]

Message: 20        
   Date: Tue, 01 Nov 2005 22:23:59 -0000
   From: "jwj32542" <jwj32542@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: First Aid

--- In BackpackingLight@yahoogroups.com, "Don Walker" 
<dwalker911@y...> wrote:
> In order of importance:
> 
> Knowledge
> Skill
> 
> Everything else can either be improvised from your regular
gear
> or found in your environment.


### EXCELLENT ANSWER!!!!
But then, jwj32542 also responds with --

"Eh...so you don't carry a first aid kit because you're smart
enough to improvise everything? I would recommend having, in
order of importance, the knowledge and skill to properly use a
first aid kit, but I certainly wouldn't recommend counting on
the ability to improvise "everything else" in the time needed to
treat an injury.  Sorry - but that's some bad advice."

### I must heartily disagree. The question was from the
self-described "new guy", and most of us know of heavy backpacks
stuffed with whole pharmacies toted by people with ABSOLUTELY NO
more clue about first aid than about backpacking, and who thusly
think having a 4 pound first aid kit is safer than having a 3
pound first aid kit. So I pose you a question: if you were
disabled on a trail (or in a car, for that matter), and someone
came to the aid of your unconscious self, would you want that
person to be 1) equipped out the wazoo with an ambulance worth
of gear, or 2), a fresh graduate of a First Responder/Wilderness
course, with nothing in his/her pocket but lint? .... Thusly
does skill/knowledge trump stuff.

### Howsomeever, "jwj32542" also continued with:
"What's needed will get lots of opinions, though.  I go pretty
light and carry some band-aids, neosporin, gauze, motrin and not
much else.  Superglue is a lightweight, effective way to treat
cuts, too...I usually have some with me."
### I would opine that the function of band-aids and gauze can
be had with existing equipment; that I really need to carry some
superglue (or its officially sanctioned first aid equivalent,
available on the consumer market now); that duct tape and an
indelible marker (names, vitals, meds, TIMEs) should be part of
every hiking kit.

medtoe