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Recently I attended a three day class on medical response in hostile environments presented by Medical Corps in Caldwell, Ohio. The presenters were terrific, the topics important, and the hands on lab sessions made the whole thing come together very well. I have already had considerable medical training but I left with a better understanding of what may be required in the future. I gained additional confidence in my ability to perform many of the basic and lifesaving medical functions. After talking to a number of people I realized a few things about medical preparedness could be presented to this blog for thought and discussion. The everyday American seems poorly equipped for medical emergencies, basic medical or dental care requirements for a grid down situation. The majority of our individual healthcare needs are provided by the giant US healthcare system. We have become a population with limited medical skills, knowledge, and have no definitive plan to carry us through a serious societal breakdown.
Medical professionals possess a high level of training that may or may not be available to you or your group. There are tens of thousands of doctors and nurses living in this country but I rarely hear or read where any prep groups are including or recruiting medical professionals. I have been deeply involved in surgical and medical procedures for over 25 years and consider myself well educated on a wide variety of medical products and their use, but find myself nearly overwhelmed with the various aspects of medical prepping. The information that is available on an assortment of medical procedures and conditions is scattered around the internet and is difficult to understand. Any numbers of sites praise the use of herbal remedies that they say will be growing in a roadside ditch while many others sell battle bandages and magic powder guaranteed to stop an arterial blood shower when your child gets shot by a band of ruthless marauders. People are wondering should we buy bird antibiotics in pills, capsules, can we freeze it, is it enough, will it last, what exact one should we buy, how much do we give someone, will it expire, what about other drugs, and suture, or dental instruments, and IV fluids, or what about shock treatment, or this , or that, or the other? Many people don’t know what information to look for or what they may actually need to do to provide for future medical needs. Countless people are not even sure what they may be facing in the event someone falls ill or a grave injury occurs to a family or group member. The choices and availability of medical provisions are, quite simply, dizzying and far too expansive for the average person to begin to make the right purchasing and stockpiling decisions regarding critical items. Medical textbooks and manuals are readily available to the public but many describe techniques and procedures that call for far more knowledge and proficiency than average people genuinely possess. In reality, people can’t expect to open a medical text book during an emergency and follow the directions.
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