When you are in a dangerous survival situation, or simply don't have access to electricity and the convenience of going to an emergency room or doctor's office, you will find that even minor issues can be quite scary.
For example, a simple burn or cut can become infected and threaten the health of the individual. Today's task is to educate yourself about some of the more common first aid techniques you may need to know if you are on your own without modern medicine.
Start with things that are likely to happen, such as cleaning a small wound and dressing it. What tools and supplies would you need in order to take care of a simple cut, insect bite or burn?
You want to learn how to address this both with and without supplies on hand. This is something you can practice without actually being put in the exact situation. You don't want to compromise the health of your skin just to practice dressing the wound, obviously – and you don’t want to use survival skills when you still have access to modern conveniences and services.
Most of today's task will simply be educating yourself about certain first aid situations as well as purchasing the supplies you may need in order to take care of things on your own.
But with some things, you can either sign up for a class or practice them at home. For example, you may want to sign up for a CPR class so that you can save someone's life and resuscitate them if needed.
Or, you may need to learn how to set a splint on someone who has broken a bone. You can do this out of any type of material you find at home or in the wilderness, and you can practice setting a splint so that the bone is not movable at that time.
You can also read up on how to stitch someone up if a wound is too big for a simple dressing. There are videos and courses that can teach you this type of in depth first aid information.
Because you may or may not have access to pharmaceuticals or over the counter medicines, you will want to spend a little time learning how to treat issues such as pain or fever using natural or alternative medicines, like plants, herbs and spices.
Until next time
Dominus Owen Markham
The Nord Skov
Living Off Grid