Medical emergency while camping?

[Cosmik Debris]

I once had a State Trooper tell me he pulled over a speeding, erratic driver to find that the guy was transporting a friend to the ER. Some sort of flash fire explosion and the poor guy was still smouldering in the passenger seat. He had the guy get in his cruiser and hauled with lights and siren.
If we are only camping a single night I leave truck attached. Two nights I'll always disconnect incase of emergency involving people or pets (or run out of beer).

[dpi7800]

First I am sorry to hear that the OP had the medical emergency, it is always exceptionally stressful for most people to deal with when it the involved is a loved one.

What I find interesting is the discussion of wether to drive to the ER or call 911. As a person that as a youth was a Boy Scout then in Civil Air Patrol learning emergency first aid and preparing for backcountry emergencies. Now as an adult I am a police officer with 14 years on the job, I am surprised the discussion is not about preparedness. I am also an avid hunter that does wilderness backpack hunting, prior planing and preparedness is critical in my opinion.

Taking regular first aid class to me seems vital to anyone that camps. With that, appropriate aide kits should always been available. In my 5er I keep a kit that can bassically handle a mass causality situation for about 5 victims, less IV's because I'm not trained on that. I also keep things like Benadryl in the trailer both pill and liquid. In my hunting pack I keep a personal aide kit to include quick clot in the event of a gun shot or arrow wound.

I can go on and on about how I have always prepared but I think the point is proven. Try to be over prepared for everything and expect to be afraid and overly stressed when it happens. But understand by simply running senarios in your head and how to deal with them will decrease the fear and stress and decrease the reaction time.

So please be prepared and be safe on your travels.

[glsimms]

Originally Posted by dpi7800

First I am sorry to hear that the OP had the medical emergency, it is always exceptionally stressful for most people to deal with when it the involved is a loved one.

What I find interesting is the discussion of wether to drive to the ER or call 911. As a person that as a youth was a Boy Scout then in Civil Air Patrol learning emergency first aid and preparing for backcountry emergencies. Now as an adult I am a police officer with 14 years on the job, I am surprised the discussion is not about preparedness. I am also an avid hunter that does wilderness backpack hunting, prior planing and preparedness is critical in my opinion.

Taking regular first aid class to me seems vital to anyone that camps. With that, appropriate aide kits should always been available. In my 5er I keep a kit that can bassically handle a mass causality situation for about 5 victims, less IV's because I'm not trained on that. I also keep things like Benadryl in the trailer both pill and liquid. In my hunting pack I keep a personal aide kit to include quick clot in the event of a gun shot or arrow wound.

I can go on and on about how I have always prepared but I think the point is proven. Try to be over prepared for everything and expect to be afraid and overly stressed when it happens. But understand by simply running senarios in your head and how to deal with them will decrease the fear and stress and decrease the reaction time.

So please be prepared and be safe on your travels.

The Boy Scout Motto:

BE Prepared!

[Edd505]

[QUOTE=dpi7800;418999
What I find interesting is the discussion of wether to drive to the ER or call 911. As a person that as a youth was a Boy Scout then in Civil Air Patrol learning emergency first aid and preparing for backcountry emergencies. Now as an adult I am a police officer with 14 years on the job, I am surprised the discussion is not about preparedness.
[/QUOTE]
I was an officer for 25 years and the first county I worked at was so rural our Sheriff has every deputy trained as EMT's and we carrier the "Crash kits" like found on an ambulance, antihistamines, O2 etc and had permission from the EMS director to use anything in the kits. Why because the first unit on most med calls was a deputy. I switched county s to a medium size one and all deputy's had a minimum of advanced first aid. 911 will dispatch emergency units in the area. All the park rangers where also trained in first aid so 911 maybe the quickest. Living in rural NM now I have seen dispatch co ordinate a meet between private transport and the ambulance until we got a med flight assigned the area. As stated above you have to make the choice to transport or wait. I had a partner shot called for an ambulance and then thought your 2 blocks from the hospital and the ambulance is coming 18 miles, he made the trip in my unit. Preparation and knowledge can make the difference of life and death as can the choice you make. Travel safe.