Survival and Austere Medicine, 3rd Edition

Survival and Austere Medicine, 3rd Edition, is written by the Remote, Austere, and Third World Medicine Discussion Board Moderators, who are not named, but include a veterinarian, emergency room physician, family physician, surgical physician assistant, nurse, and biomedical engineer.  They've got experience with the military and NGOs in pre-hospital, remote, austere and third-world conditions, such as a prepper in a societal collapse or civil war might expect to encounter.  Their belief and approach is that intelligent lay people with basic medical knowledge, skills, and equipment can be trained to delivery high quality medical care for 80-90% of health problems.

Are you skeptical?

On the first page of the first chapter is a list of the twenty most common reasons patients came to see one physician, representing about 95% of his consultations:

• sprains and minor fractures
• colds and fever
• minor wounds, some infected, most needing only to be cleaned, a few needing suturing
• vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, including appendicitis (which if found early can be treated with antibiotics)
• allergic reactions and rashes
• asthma
• ear infections
• urinary tract infections
• burns
• dental problems
• skin infections
• chest infections and chest pain
• fainting
• mental health problems
• STDs
• early pregnancy problems

With training, references, and adequate supplies, most of these conditions are very manageable for an intelligent layperson.  How many people in Venezuela right now would love to be able to care for their loved ones themselves instead of trying to find a doctor or hospital to help?  In the socialist paradise our politicians are creating for us, we'd better be prepared.

The top twelve list of prescribed drugs:

• acetaminophen (Tylenol)
• OTC antihistamines
• OTC anti-inflammatories
• oral contraceptives
• flucloxacillin (antibiotic)
• throat lozenges
• augmentin (antibiotic)
• loperamide (OTC anti-diarrheal)
• nystatin (and other antifungals)
• hydrocortisone cream
• inhalers
• morphine

Yeah, the morphine is a bit beyond our reach in this country, but everything else we can manage.  Antibiotics can be purchased from overseas pharmacies.  Local ranch and feed stores sometimes carry fish antibiotics or you can buy them online.  Interestingly, they happen to be in the same dosages and many look exactly like the same stuff the local pharmacy gives you.  The federal government is gradually tightening loopholes, so this option may not be around forever.  (Alton's Antibiotics and Infectious Disease is a great resource for learning more about this option.)  Most of the off-grid medicine books will have clear information on exact antibiotics and dosages to treat diseases.

So that's their premise--an intelligent layperson with training, skills, and knowledge (and supplies!) can manage an awful lot of common conditions, conditions which might even be life-threatening.

One of the best things about this book is that it's free to download (click here to download).  Of course, if you want a hard copy (which I highly recommend), you'll have to pay for your printing and binding costs, and that could run $20-30. 

Now, I understand that many readers already have an off-grid medicine book, or even two.  Money and shelf space for another book, and a substantial one at that--it's 614 pages on 8.5x11" paper--are limited for a lot of us.  Is acquiring this book really necessary?

I believe it is.

As I research topics to be posted here, I consult numerous books and online resources.  And I shouldn't be surprised, but constantly am (someday I'll learn!), that some conditions are not covered by one or another.  It is never one book that is lacking everything or one book that has everything.  One might barely touch on an illness, while another goes into great depth, or at least as much depth as a layperson in TEOTWAWKI needs.  So having a few resources is a really good idea.

One great advantage of this compilation over others dealing with medicine post-collapse is that these authors have actually practiced medicine off-grid and in remote areas, in stark contrast to others whose practice has been limited to their homes and offices and hospitals.  Much more so than other physician-authors, they have had to improvise treatments when the usual supplies were not available and/or when higher care would have to be delayed.  Kinda like what we may face post-collapse.

The extremely detailed table of contents, fifteen pages long, will get you to your topic of concern quickly.  The fact that one of the authors is a veterinarian is useful adjunct to other medical texts because you're getting some advice for treating pets and livestock as well. There's a chapter on medicinal herbs and various preparations.  Throughout the book, the authors encourage you to ponder the ethical questions of triage--who gets treated, especially when supplies are limited.  That really needs to be determined now, and not when there's a crisis and it's harder to think.

There are a lot of topics addressed in here that I haven't seen elsewhere:

• pre-term delivery
• administering capsules and tablets to an unconscious patient
• peritonsillar abscess
• pancreatitis
• sugar for infected wounds
• maggot therapy for wounds
• malnutrition and treatment for deficiencies
• performing an appendectomy
• performing a Caesarean section
• ectopic pregnancy removal
• skin excisions and lumpectomies
• surgical instrument acquisition and quality

 It's a great reference, full of information not included in other off-grid medicine books, and it's free.  What's not to love?

Want your own copy?  Click here for the free download.

Links to related posts:
Armageddon Medicine  
Alton's Antibiotics   
OTC Pain Relievers   

The Problem with Zebras

"When you hear hoof beats, think horses, not zebras."

That was one of the gems that Dr. Steve shared in his off-grid medicine course.  It's something taught to all students in medical school.  And what is means is this:  Common things happen commonly.  The child in the waiting room is more likely to have an ear infection than appendicitis.  The young adult is more likely to have type-2 diabetes than a gunshot. 

We naturally gravitate toward the sensationalized rather the common.  If we decide to learn something new, it has to be something cool, different, unique.  Quick and easy would be really good, too.  Macho survivalists want to learn how to DIY an appendectomy on themselves, sans anesthesia.  But learning to satisfy the essentials of good nutrition to stay healthy in the first place?  Leave that to the grannies. They want to be able to stitch up that GSW or finish off an amputation or place a tourniquet (and argue about which tourniquet is best).  They want to be able to treat the rare injuries, the zebras, that likely aren't even once in a lifetime or once in a family's lifetime, but can't manage the common problems (the horses).  They don't know which OTC meds are best for which conditions or when to suture and which wounds must be left open.

Spending money on stuff is easier than learning a new skill. The acquisition of that box of ammo, bottle of fish antibiotics, or solar rechargeable penlight provides an immediate reward of having accomplished something.  And with online shopping, you receive that reward twice--once when you purchase, and again when it arrives.

Learning a new skill takes time. It's not glamorous or sensational.  On top of that, the macho guys are even ridiculing your choices, which makes it harder.  They're sure the hoof beats coming are zebras, and it's silly to waste time preparing for horses, mules, or donkeys.  So you just have to put your head down and plow on.

Which brings us back to the problem with zebras.  For a very long time the US, figuratively, has been a nation of horses treated by horse doctors, horse doctors that have been trained to treat only horses.  Not zebras.  Even though zebras bear some physical resemblance, there are significant differences.  Because the zebras carry some vastly different diseases.  And those diseases have symptoms and presentations that are quite similar to those for horses, but the treatments may be totally different.  The horse doctors might have read about these zebra diseases, but they have never seen them.  Most American doctors have never seen even one case of the following:

• diphtheria
• tetanus
• rabies
• scabies
• mumps
• German measles
• cholera
• yellow fever
• typhus
• tularemia
• plague
• anthrax
• botulism
• measles (though this is changing with increasing numbers of people who are not immunized)

When American doctors hear hoof beats, they think horses. Scabies gets diagnosed as psoriasis.  Improperly diagnosed rabies patients are given steroids for pain and sent home.  Is it influenza, or anthrax?  The symptoms are very similar. What about plague or tularemia?  Even with experience, these can be hard to differentiate.  Without experience? You probably don't want to go there.

Unfortunately, many of those hoof beats in the distance are in fact coming from zebras.  Most physicians in US have never seen the actual zebras making a comeback and crossing our borders.  Measles is only the beginning.  Lots of other communicable diseases are on their way.   We currently have the problem of physicians unable to identify more exotic diseases now, while the technology is available to help them.  What happens when our society collapses?  They will not have their technology to help them diagnose anything.

Now, there are a few horse doctors who hear the hoof beats of zebras in the distance.  Some of them teach off-grid medicine to preppers.  Some write books or blogs.  No one physician covers everything, so it's best to acquire at least two or three different sources--hard copies.  Make sure you're prepared to deal with the ailments common to horses.  That's what you'll see the most of.  But it would also be wise to have the means of dealing with communicable diseases, parasites, and infectious diseases of third world countries, as well as bioweapons.  Zebras can be heard in the distance.

Links to related posts:
Cholera
Rabies
Scabies
Tularemia 
Typhus
Armageddon Medicine  
Survival and Austere Medicine, 3rd Edition  
The Survival Medicine Handbook 

For further reading:
https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900041016/utahn-dies-from-rabies-a-first-since-1944.html
https://www.healthline.com/health/psoriasis/psoriasis-vs-scabies

 © 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com  04.23.24

Book Review: The Survival Medicine Handbook

As noted on the cover, The Survival Medicine Handbook, by Dr. Joe Alton and Nurse Amy Alton, is "a guide for when medical help is NOT on the way."  The second edition is significantly expanded and revised; don't cheat yourself by purchasing a first edition copy. 
Like other off-grid medicine authors and teachers, the Altons firmly believe that an educated lay person with good training can successfully address 80-90 % of the medical issues they will encounter when society collapses and there is no advanced medical care available.  Some of these cases may even be life-threatening.  Like administering the right antibiotic for an infection.  But they aren't necessarily complicated, and that's why the Altons have written this book.

The book has a few shortcomings.  There are approximately twenty pages at the beginning that are basically preaching to the choir.  Those who are preparing for TEOTWAWKI don't really need any more encouragement to do so.   And the same goes for the chapter devoted to natural disasters; preppers living in earthquake country or tornado alley are likely to have already prepared for these scenarios.  However, the information on treating smoke inhalation due to wildfire is valuable.  There also isn't a lot of information on lice-, tick-, flea-, and mosquito-borne diseases, which is probably the greatest weakness of this book.  And there's nothing about quarantine and isolation for preventing the spread of disease.  But that's also why having a few off-grid medicine resources is critical.  If one book doesn't address your concern, another most likely will.

Like most, if not all, survival medicine books, there are lists of suggested items to include in your various medical kits and the recommended quantities.  The Survival Medicine Handbook is written at a higher level than Armageddon Medicine (reviewed here), but it shouldn't be over the head of anyone with at least some college education, and at half the cost of Armageddon Medicine.  However, it's probably not as thorough as Survival and Austere Medicine, 3rd Edition (reviewed here), which is free. 

Now for the topics that The Survival Medicine Handbook covers well.

• Moreso than any other off-grid medicine book, this one includes alternative medicine and natural treatments, including essential oils, right in with conventional therapies; the alternative treatments aren't an afterthought relegated to the back of the book.
• There is also an entire chapter dedicated to growing a medicinal herb garden for making your own medicine, because pharmaceuticals will eventually run out.
• This book contains a glossary of medical terms; most do not. 
• Dr. Alton is an OB-GYN, so there is a very solid chapter on birth control, pregnancy, and delivery.  
• There is pretty solid information on treating dental problems.
• This is the only book I've seen that addresses altitude sickness and treatment.  
• There's a good section on radiation.
• This book includes more information on using an epi-pen than I've seen elsewhere.
• And there is a respectable section on administering local anesthesia and nerve blocks. 

The Survival Medicine Handbook is nearly 600 pages of text on 6x9" pages, in what looks like a 10- or 11-point font.  There's little room for note-taking, but there are helpful illustrations and photographs.  I'd say it's worth investing in.

Links to related posts:
Book review--Armageddon Medicine  
Book review--Survival and Austere Medicine, 3rd Edition   

© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com