SURVIVE
“Should we hide under the canoe?” PHOTO: JONATHAN PRATT
Oooh, snap! PHOTO: JONATHAN PRATT
18 Tornadoes If you think a tornado’s coming: 16
Axe Wound This painful, bloody mess is a
sure trip-ender. Manage it with Outward Bound’s Wilderness First Aid Handbook’s protocol for severe bleeding:
• Apply direct pressure to the wound with a bandage or cloth and elevate. Make sure to wear gloves. If the bleeding doesn’t stop, you may have to remove the dressing and re-aim your pressure.
• Hold that pressure for more than 15 minutes, enough time for a clot to form.
• Wrap a pressure bandage on once the bleeding is controlled. Make sure not to tie an accidental tourniquet, which could cost a limb.
42 SUMMER/FALL 2010 17 #15
• Secure loose stuff around your campsite or put it inside your tent. • Look up for things that are likely to fall on you, like dead trees and limbs. • Get low in a ditch, depression in the earth or small gulley. • Lay face down and cover your head for protection. Praying never hurts.
Foot Entrapment Whitewater protocol has
changed from passive floating on your back to head-up front crawl to safety. Too often swimmers didn’t keep their feet at the surface or stood up too early. If your foot gets jammed between rocks and the current is pushing you down, your (and your group’s) number-one priority is keeping your airway above water. “Usually, the only way to stabilize a victim will be a tag line,” writes Franco Ferrero, author ofWhite Water Safety & Rescue. “Once the victim is tagged, it may be possible to free him by simply using the line to pull him upstream.” If not, it buys valuable time to set up more involved rescue systems.
Black Bears So a black bear walks into a
Subway restaurant and orders a cold cut combo… True story from Kitamat, B.C., where Rebecca Branton locked herself in the staff bathroom (great strategy) and the bear left the store without a bite to eat.
If you’re camping and a black bear gets too close for comfort, follow these steps:
1) Back away slowly, avoiding eye contact.
2) If it advances, look big, wave your arms and make noise. Stand your ground and group together.
3) Grab your bear spray. Canadian bear expert, Steve Herrero, found that it deterred aggressive bears in 92 per cent of cases.
4) If it attacks, fight back. Kick, punch, swing sticks and frying pans aiming for the bear’s eyes and snout—nobody, not even a black bear, likes a poke in the nose.
19
Hypothermia Getting the person out of her
wet clothes and into warm, insulating gear is the first order of business to treat mild to moderate hypothermia. Use the casualty’s own heat generating ability. Think lots of hot chocolate, stride jumps and running on the spot. Past the point of shivering, in the advanced stages of hypothermia, the person becomes disorientated, confused and combative. Her cellular metabolic processes have shut down and she needs active external warming. Bundle her in sleeping bags and place Nalgenes filled with hot water in her groin and under both armpits.
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