Improvisation is a Valuable Skill in EMS

It might be all you have An eight-foot wave at an Acapulco beach proved too much for a middle-aged body-surfing American tourist. After the pummeling, he lay in the shallows, his distal tib-fib a mushy mess of crepitus. Hearing the cries for help and seeing none on the nearly deserted beach, I went into action, an earnest advanced first aider with little direct experience with an actual injury. This being the mid-70s, there was no 9-1-1, no Mexican emergency response. I headed over to him, introduced myself and offered to help. The physical exam proved the leg fracture to be an isolated injury. Time to splint. The beach was all sand and seashells. Scanning for possibilities, I saw a small wooden sign pounded into the beach nearby. A couple of willing assistants separated the crosspiece from the stake, and I borrowed some towels for padding, then used a couple of belts to hold it all in place. Someone brought a lounge chair over and a group of volunteers helped haul the man to a waiting cab. Off he went with his friends to the hospital. It wasn’t textbook, but it worked (and worked well, he reported, when we saw him at the airport in a cast a few days later). Beyond the Usual What I love about wilderness medicine is the need for improvisation. And as the example from Acapulco shows, “wilderness” might be as close as your next tornado, hurricane, or other disaster. A knack for improvisation relies on two things: 1) attention to the principles of care while employing flexi...
Source: JEMS Operations - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Columns Operations Source Type: news