First Aid

oilSlick

oilSlick

Joined
Apr 6, 2009
Messages
90
I had the pleasure of following linky to Randal Adventure Training and was amused by some great pics of some Rambo's in the making. Eventually I made it to the survival pacs offered by RAT and I thought they were well put together. I did think one thing was missing...

Summer of '07, myself and a couple buddies were 5 hours of boulders, side hills, and deep ruts into the Rubicon Trail with our JEEPS when we got to a place called Buck Island lake. This place is like heaven after sucking trail dust all day. We decided to set up camp and stay awhile. We were all pretty hungry so we set out to each make his own lunch that we had brought along. My friend actually had Burrito makings which I was pretty jealous and drooling over. That was untill he tasted the secret ingredient...a yellow jacket had landed on his burrito and withough noticing it, he rolled the bee up into it along with the lettuce and beans and a little hot sauce.

Being this far into the woods is not a place where you want to get stung on the tounge. As my friends throat started to swell up I promised him I wouldn't hesitate to TRACH him if needed and I pulled out my knife to show him that it was nice and sharp and he would hardly feel a thing. This didn't help calm him down much.

What did calm him down was the Anti-Histamine that our other friend produced from his medpac out of his JEEP. We spent the next 15 minutes hastily packing up camp in case the medicine didn't work, but shortly there after he could feel the progression of swelling down his throat subside. It might have saved his life. Honestly, I've only seen Trachiotomies done in the movies, so I really didn't want to do it, but I would have if I had to. :D

Since then, I always carry kids chewable anti-histamines in my medpack and have needed them twice since then for other histamine reactions while in the woods.

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Over looking Buck Island Lake
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Decent to Buck Island Lake
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Buck Island Lake
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The Bee Sting:
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be aware. antihistamines would not have helped if he had severe anaphalactic shock. epi is the only thing to help and even then you're not buying yourself a lot of time w/ an an epi pen. i HIGHLY recommend your friend get an script for an epi pen, since each reaction will only get worse. pack of 2 epi auto injectors run about 120 bucks w/ no insurance.
 
Dude, we don't build "Rambos" and I'm not sure where you got that impression. If anything, we do our best to build anti-Rambos since those idiots usually don't have enough brains to keep themselves alive in a bad scenario.
 
Medic by trade and you definately need to look into an epi pen. Also if you have a really cool primary care physician you can get hooked up with benadryl and use both for IM injection. MUCH cheaper by the way in the vial form. Worst case you can take benadryl orally and it usually takes about 30-45 min to work which may mean you are not breathing by that time. Also FYI if you carry unisom for sleep it is just 50 mg benadryl.
 
This is a practical way of getting hurt,if he was allergic to bee stings why did he not pack his own Special FAK, and quit watching Bear Grylis eat nasty stuff...only leads to intestinal issues.
 
Also with that type of swelling doing a trach may not help. Best to have drugs handy and a good plan for getting out as fast as possible, including the fastest way to contact for an airlift, landing site markers, etc.
 
DONT ever trach someone w/o training, and the proper equipment. Theres more to it then you see in the movies.

What luck. A yellow jacket buritto. Good to carry the benadryl, an epi pen WOULD be in order if hes alergic to bees etc... The swelling was probably due to the location of the sting not anaphylaxis. What a crap place to be stung. Glad it turned out Ok though.
 
I'm pretty sure bynadryl wont do much for anaphalactic shock. Luckily in this case, he wasn't allergic, just a bad place to get stung. People who are allergic to bees shouldn't leave there home withought epinipherine. :lol:

Also where we were camped, there is actually a helipad 100 yards up the hillside above the lake. They use it to bring in supplies for busy JEEP run weekends and maintenence on the dam. We were there mid week when it was quiet and no real way of contacting medical attention. Our CB's dont have the range needed. Maybe a satalite phone would be in order or a HAMM Radio??? I was more trying to lighten the mood when I told him I would trach him. I certainly did not want to trach him and only would have done it if I thought it was the only way to save him, however I agree that you should never do that withought training. My understanding is if you miss you can damage the voice box and he wouldn't be able to speak for life. I would feel really bad about that.

Thankfully everthing worked out fine. There was just 15 minutes where we were all a little nervous.
 
Uh. PLEASE PLEASE never go hacking away on someones throat to "help them" this is a very fast way to 1. kill them and 2. get the poop sued out of yourself. the anatomical area of this procedure will not damage the vocal chords due to them being much higher but the thyroid gland is right where you perform a surgical cricothyrotomy and well you wanna be sure and certain you are in the right place. I have done 2 in the past 8 years and they are pretty simple when done properly but doing it the MacGyver way with a SAK and ballpoint pen...SUPER PUCKER FACTOR.
 
well said scotsmanspride. SUPER pucker factor.

Most of the vocal chord damages Ive heard of involve unskilled hands and a Laryngoscope.... trying to visualize the glottic opening and thrashing em with the end of the blade..
 
Well other than the sting, the scenery looks great and it looks like you mostly had a good time.
 
man i wish i could come down and walk that area........

on a side note, if you have no epi, but have Benadryl, crush it up and put it UNDER the tongue. Much faster absorption
 
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