I'm officially certified as a wilderness first responder - - one of the coolest classes I have ever taken!

A traction splint for a fractured femur.  The pole on the outside is actually pulling the bottom of the foot downward with a rope tied to the bottom of the foot.

We learned to do a lot of improvising.  Here is a 100% improvised splint.  made with backpacks, belts, jackets, and a crazy creek chair.

Practicing a rescue for someone who "fell out of that second story window onto their head".

One of our classes was a staged night rescue.  We had fake patient's covered in blood act out a scenario for four hours in the mountains.  It was POURING rain and freezing - - but awesome!  We were only allowed ot use materials that we would actaully have with us on a day hike.

This is the scenario:

3 people riding down on four wheelers flip.  We come accross them shortly after they flip and must assess/treat their injuries and stabalize/monitor them as much as possible.  We are 6 hours from the trailhead, with no cell phone service, and there is no way a helicopter can get to where we are tonight, so we must stay the night and monitor the patients.

 In our assessment of each  patient we discovered the following:
Pt #1: Possible spinal cord injury, a Tib-fib fracture with bones sticking out of the right leg, another tib-fib fracture on left leg with no bones sticking out.  Severe asthma induced by pain and anxiety which causes him to start wheezing, and then stop breathing multiple times.  The pt. is also in hysterics and trying to move (the actor was amazing btw! - - he was screaming the whole time, and freaking out!, which would cause him to hyperventilate, have an asthma attack and then stop breathing...multiple times).  He was also very cold.

Pt #2:  Dislocated hip and pelvis fracture, a stick going straight through his left arm, and a spinal cord injury.

Pt. #3:  Internal bleeding in his abdoman, lacerations all over his face, and going into shock.

A member of the group had small hiking tarps in their bag so we were able to have some shelter from the rain, although the water still dripped through a lot.  In the end we were all soaked.  (I stole these pictures from one of the guys in my group)

Taking notes to keep track of vitals.  That is the patient covered with orange jackets, the one who had the stick go through his arm.

We did it!

 

After the class we brainstormed the 10 most important things we would want with us in the outdoors.

This was seriously one of the coolest classes I have ever taken.  I would highly recommend it!