First Aid, Who's Needed It?

[type2bowhunter]

Ruptured my patellar tendon chasing ibex in NM and had to hike down 2 miles, thank God for gorilla tape. I did a little write up on the whole deal. Rehab is going well

Thread 'Injured in the backcountry'

Oct 22, 2024

I am currently lying in bed several hours post surgery. I am zonked on hydrocodone but unable to sleep, I've got an immobilizing brace on my left leg which has made falling asleep a seemingly laughable proposition. I don't know exactly why I intend on summarizing what happened to me here on rokslide, but I believe it'll help me close the door on the injury and motivate me to attack my rehabilitation. And, if somewhere down the line my story can help someone else, great.

If you couldn't tell by my username I am a huge fan of difficult hunts. I'm a bow only guy and the more difficult the...

• type2bowhunter
• Replies: 62
• Forum: General Discussion Forum

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[westsloper]

I have a first aid issue basically every summer lol. Thank goodness they've all been mild. The most annoying one was a puncture from a stick. I stepped on it just right and it flipped up and smacked me on the leg. I bled a lot and had to get stitches.

One that sticks out to me was a girl who got her tooth knocked out walking into a branch. We were very grateful to have plenty of ibuprofen and acetaminophen that day.

 

[Pony Soldier]

Numerous horse wrecks, broken ribs, couple helicopter wrecks, and an out of control slide down a snow field with a crash at the bottom. Even had a tree fall on me.
Blood, cuts, and abrasions. Even some nasty bruises. Other than trips to the emergency room, never needed any first aid.

I have needed some help driving but nothing applied before hand.

 

[Beendare]

Our assistant guide was almost killed in Australia. A buddy wounded one of those 2,000# water buff's and we were looking for it. Johnathan and I were walking into a thick patch of brush that was about 6' tall...and I was not going to have any of that. He had his Canon video cam on a tripod over his shoulder.

I got to my buddy 50y away when we hear this big smack and J cry out. Then we see the brush being plowed in a donut like a skid steer was in there mowing it down. All of a sudden the brush starts parting right towards us and I took 2 steps behind a tree with my buddy Robert running down a trail full out.

The bull went past me at about 3 feet away- dang I can still remember the ground shaking. The bull ran off in a different direction with Robert and the others yelling and chasing it.

I went in to get J and he was mangled knocked out cold, I thought he was dead. He had a pulse and I knew I had to get him out into the open in case that bull circled back to his hidden hole. I squeezed his legs and he could feel it. I was worried about a broken back but running my hand up both sides of his backbone he said no pain, only his shoulder and collarbone which was broken. I humped him on my shoulder and got him out of there to the clearing we had been when it happened.

Turns out, the bamboo size brush saved him while draped over the horns of the bull as it had some give to it. If the bull would have slammed him to the hard ground, he would have been a goner.

An hour to the truck...then a 6 hour drive on dirt roads to Darwin to the hospital- that had to hurt. He recovered....a stud dude that just made a bad choice. I'm an old hog hunter....no way I walk into a thick brush patch like that with just a bow.

 

[Mr Biscuts]

North American Rescue makes a patrol kit that goes in every hunting pack/range bag I use. Comes nice and compact in a vac seal bags and can be picked up for relatively cheap. Highly recommend, still will need a band-aide bag but for any serious injuries this kit has you covered.

 

[alecvg]

Even as an EMT and first responder, I carry very little with me while out. I’ve never had the need for anything in the backcountry. Scariest I’ve had in the moment ended up being minor. I was thinning timber a few years ago on a project by myself, and skipped my power saw along my knee and lower leg. Looked much worse than it was. Once I got calmed down and looked it over, I wrapped it with some Covid masks from my truck and duct tape, and kept working the rest of the day. Went into urgent care at the end of the day to get everything cleaned out and stitched.

 

[Waddi]

I’ve been in the back country where people have gotten bouts of altitude sickness where the only real treatment was descending in elevation and some hypothermia that was treated by changing out of wet clothes and warming arterial junctions with warm water in a Nalgene to circulate warm blood.

I’m a rookie EMT and I took a Wilderness First Responder course last year that was put on by NOLS. It was a pricey course and it took about a week but I’d recommend it to anyone that’s responsible for anyone’s safety in the backcountry. They also have shorter wilderness first aid classes that are only a couple days long and less expensive.

 

[Macintosh]

Mostly on others.
Lots of sprains/strains/breaks. A few blunt trauma head injuries (ski accident hit a tree, rockfall or icefall climbing) that required immobilizing or clearing spine. 3 different helicopter extractions, all very different situations. Only one of those was what I would call “backcountry” simply based on response time, heck getting an ambulence to my house takes longer in 2 of those cases. One case of jellyfish burns, and one case of sea urchin spines in a foot. Plenty of mild hypothermia. A few mild/moderate cuts but nothing arterial. Heat exhaustion. GI issues. Burns from boiling water. Frostbite.

Im pretty convinced that some peptol bismol, bandaids and moleskin, disinfectant, tweezers, advil, duct tape, a spare hipbelt buckle, the ability to improvise a splint, and a cell phone, will cover 99.9% of all injuries. Being prepared for a worst case injury doesnt hurt and the consequences are high, but the liklihood is extremely low. I guess my feeling is that a lot of the people ive talked to about this are so preoccupied with the worst case injuries (gunshot, arterial bleeding, etc) that they arent prepared to deal with common injuries such as a bad burn from boiling water.

 

[TaperPin]

I need a bandaid once every couple years, but duct tape or electrical tape works just as well. Knowledge of what’s what is more important than the contents of a first aid kit.

Humans are pretty fragile creatures and we slice open easily on sharp rocks. A brain bleed can happen just tripping at ground level - had a buddy take a digger, two hours later he passed out and was hauled off to the er. Twice Ive been the only adult with a brain after someone took a tumble off less than flat ground. It’s handy to know how to evaluate something like that to know if they should even be moved, while feeling around for broken bones and hidden cuts and bruises. I’ve had a dude walking in front of me in the foothills through head high brush in September get bit in the arm by a snake. Two other guys I was with tweaked knees on the mountain and they were done for the year. A few others rolled ankles and were done for the year. Knife cuts don’t bleed a lot unless they do - it’s handy to know the difference and have knowledge of keeping someone from bleeding out. A tiny piece of bark in the eye can put you out of business. I’ve been with a handful of dehydrated people who could barely walk off the mountain. It’s like running out of gas on the hiway, the easiest possible thing to prevent just by packing and drinking enough water. I don’t hunt with guys that ration their water a lot. Statistically the thing that is most likely to kill someone hunting is hypothermia from bad weather and getting stuck away from camp while being under prepared. We crossed a swollen stream after a freak storm up the drainage that was up to our ass cheeks - conditions I wouldn’t have attempted while fly fishing - luckily nobody drown, but you need to know good technique. I’ve been on the side of a high mountain when a single little storm cloud passed overhead and the static charge from lightning building up stood everyone’s hair on end and you could feel static shocks on your scalp - knowing how to avoid lightning is a good skill, and knowing cpr if the first doesn’t work is also handy. Western pine forests are full of eye level branches and hard to see dead twigs - walking around without eye protection means you will eventually need to know what to do when getting poked good. Don’t shoot yourself in the leg like my buddy did - hunting with an empty chamber is a good backup to simply not pointing the muzzle at anyone. I’ve had a hiking buddy doubled over puking from altitude sickness - it’s good to know how to prevent or minimize it, and what to do if your buddy doesn’t know how to help himself. I’ve stopped guys from eating things they know nothing about - try natural selection when hiking with someone else. Oh, and keep fine tip tweezers in the first aid kit to pull ticks off.

Medicine for Mountaineering is a classic book everyone should have. The latest edition would be nice, but for $5 an older addition is so cheap there’s no reason not to order one from eBay. I keep a copy in both cars and the home first aid kit.

 

[taskswap]

I'm on the clumsier side of the spectrum, and I probably use at least something in my med kit every trip. Most of the time it's minor band-aid territory stuff, but on one trip I slipped on loose shale and in the process of stopping my fall, I fractured my heel. My emergency kit is the one area I don't worry about being ultralight.

There are tons of opinions for what should go into these things but I'd say it depends where you're headed, who with, and how much you believe you can count on the others in your group for support in an emergency. The one thing I don't do is focus at ALL on the nonsense (IMO) "survival-kit/guide" type stuff like booklets on how to make snares. I've always believed the single best thing you can do is get OUT, so I focus on the hierarchy of needs:

- You can survive 3 minutes without air
- 3 hours without shelter
- 3 days without water
- 3 weeks without food

So I'm not bringing ration bars and snare wire. It's all about bandages, pain killers, CAT tourniquet, etc.

 

[JS.Fletch5]

Highly recommend SWAT-Ts, sterile 4x4s, and Coban. We use these in the field a lot for bleeding control and they’re great.

SWAT-are will fit where traditional tourniquets won’t- junctional areas. Can be used as a sling too in a pinch.

 

[burr24&2]

As a 20 year RN I’ve both needed and used it in multiple situations. From lacerations to broken/sprained limbs not tree . Most hunter don’t take it seriously . I recommend first aid and cpr class is a great idea for any hunter . Being able to provide help to others in need or your self is greatly needed in our chosen obsessions!

 

[7mm-08]

Numerous horse wrecks, broken ribs, couple helicopter wrecks, and an out of control slide down a snow field with a crash at the bottom. Even had a tree fall on me.
Blood, cuts, and abrasions. Even some nasty bruises. Other than trips to the emergency room, never needed any first aid.

I have needed some help driving but nothing applied before hand.

I swear, these damned horse guys are wired different - tough as nails and nothing phases them.

 

[Pony Soldier]

Just remember : You can't kill a curr dog while a purebred will catch a cold and die of pneumonia

 

[eddielasvegas]

North American Rescue makes a patrol kit that goes in every hunting pack/range bag I use.

One os these kits? Link HERE.

Or one of these? LINKY.

Thanks,

Eddie