First Aid Proceedures & Kits Vintage Vs New

[John in Covina]

From my years of outdoor adventure the concept of a medical kit for and individual or small team a trip has changed a bit. Early on one might bring some Johnson & Johnson bandaids and some mecurichrome for a day trip where others would bring a field hospital on their trips.

I am not sure how many of the Loungers have taken any First Aid courses, for me it's been a few decades since I took the Red Cross regular and advanced courses. I can just reccomend taking them if you haven't as it will improve your first aid response abilitities tremendously.

Treatment of a drowning victim has changed a lot since the golden age movies portrayed it for sure.

 

[Puzzicato]

The schedule of compressions to breaths for CPR has changed completely between when I first learned CPR at school in the late 1980s to doing a first aid certificate a couple of years ago!

I also remember a couple of books that we read at school where someone would be bitten by a snake and they'd apply a tourniquet, and my teachers always had to go through current wisdom on the treatment of snakebite.

 

[PADDY]

In with the new and out with the old...

Yes, the whole CPR thing has kept changing...[huh] but hopefully it makes it easier for folk to remember.

Old versus New? To be honest, as far as First Aid and Medical Treatment is concerned, (in the Great Outdoors), I don't take any chances and any new kit/techniques is taken onboard as required. And it's kit appropriate to the field environment.

Example: Few years back in the Nepalese Himalaya, came across a New Zealand girl who had been trekking and fallen off the road edge (road was cut 'into' the side of the mountain). Luckily a 'ledge' about 12 feet below caught her (otherwise she would have died). But the way she fell, she had fractures, was going well into shock and was losing bodily fluids. Had a saline pack and drip with us (it was a real effort even trying to find a vein by this point to get the needle in). But this did save her life (although she had to have a limb amputated! I know, awful for a young woman, but such is the impact of the environment of a Developing Country like this, miles from no-where. A Nepalese person would have *died* because you need insurance to get an airlift out..etc [huh] ..I KNOW...!!!).

70 to 80-years-ago you wouldn't be carrying that kind of kit around in a back pack. To me, I'd rather have the modern kit and be safe - it's a 'no brainer' as my American pals tell me. Life isn't a rehersal!!

 

[Creeping Past]

I'm a first aider. It's a good thing to learn and mostly common sense (except for the technicalities of CPR).

I think it's essential if you're outward bound, especially if you're in the wilds or if you're likely to be out of sight of others at any stage. Even on well-trodden paths in the British Isles there are times when you can walk for several hours without encountering another soul. And you need to know what to do in case of accidents/emergencies.

 

[Mike K.]

I am Wilderness First Aid & CPR certified (http://www.nols.edu/wmi) and highly recommend this course to anyone who spends considerable time in the outdoors like I do. Besides having a basic first aid kit and knowing what to do in different emergencies, the greatest skill you can have (or learn) is the ability to stay calm and think/act decisively under pressure.

 

[Jennifer Lynn]

The schedule of compressions to breaths for CPR has changed completely between when I first learned CPR at school in the late 1980s to doing a first aid certificate a couple of years ago!

I agree Puzzicato. I took First Aid and CPR in the 80's, 90's and as recently as a few months ago for certification at work (site response team), and was surprised at how the steps and even names had changed (The Heimlich is now just "stomach thrusts"?). Still, it's good to be on the up and up in terms of what works and what doesn't.

 

[nobodyspecial]

Good to see another NOLS grad on the forum.

FYI, the Red Cross is selling vintage styled first aid kits via their web site.
http://www.redcrossstore.org/Shopper/Product.aspx?UniqueItemId=76
http://www.redcrossstore.org/Shopper/Product.aspx?UniqueItemId=524
http://www.redcrossstore.org/Shopper/Product.aspx?UniqueItemId=520

 

[barracudamagoo]

Unless your last class was 40 years ago not much has really changed. Yes the number of breaths and compressions are different; however, if you have to perform CPR it won't matter if you did 2 breaths or 3, or 10 compressions or 15. The fact that you attempted may make all the difference.

Agreed that taking a course every few years is important. As far as field gear we usually bring the entire medical bag with us; however, the wife (nurse) and I have always seem to run into situations everytime we go camping or on vacation. Someone around us is either having a heart attack, or has a bone stickin' out somewhere.

 

[Paisley]

The Heimlich is now just "stomach thrusts".

The Heimlich Maneuver has saved my life, along with countless others. Dr. Heimlich deserves to have his name on his claim to fame. Besides, "stomach thrusts" sounds like a symptom, not a cure.

 

[Diamondback]

The Heimlich Maneuver has saved my life, along with countless others. Dr. Heimlich deserves to have his name on his claim to fame. Besides, "stomach thrusts" sounds like a symptom, not a cure.

Or, worse yet, a bladecraft technique.

In all seriousness, I've been starting to consider looking into first-aid/CPR/etc. certification to go along with my defensive studies--kinda defeats the purpose of "neutralize the threat" if they get a lucky one off first and the Principal bleeds out before EMS can get there, ya know?

 

[Shangas]

I'm a qualified first-aider and watching old movies and cartoons about how first-aid used to be done is quite humorous. Like with the whole "arm-pumps" thing that they used to for CPR and drowning persons and all that.

...What are those things called, and what do they do? Where you had to lift the patient's arms up and down in this weird pumping motion? What was it supposed to achieve?

I'm so glad I took first-aid courses, though. They've already come in handy twice in my life. Hopefully, not a third time.

 

[Paisley]

I know it's not what you're referring to, Shangas, but the arm pump thing reminded me of one of my professors. He told us students that he'd had an idea to use solid rocket fuel to get oil from old wells and a company had put a lot of money into this. He was so nervous one day about whether this was going to work that he had a panic attack while driving. Always the thinker, he stopped the car, got out and ran up and down the side of the road with his arms in the air. He knew that his panicky breathing was causing him to take up too much oxygen, so he ran, and that raising his arms would prevent him from taking deep breaths, thereby using a two-part solution to pull himself together.

If only he'd been as good at explaining the mysteries of heat transfer.

 

[Puzzicato]

I don't know what they were called, but I think the aim was to get water out of the lungs.

 

[enigmata-wood]

If you follow the advice of most pre-60's films all you need to cure anything is to open the window and give the patient a shot of brandy. They were a hardy lot.

 

[shortbow]

When I was a kid in Texas, the most commonly carried first aid 'kit' was a Cutter snake bite kit. Two rubber suction things with a sharp little knife, some sort of antiseptic and a tourniquet. You were meant to strap up, cut, and suck. Then walk out for help. I don't think they do it that way anymore.lol