OnPoint Tactical’s off-grid medicine course is not your typical
first aid class. It’s not EMT school. I mean no disrespect towards them
at all, but those first responder classes are like baby aspirin. What
Dr. Steve provides is more like dilaudid or fentanyl. (No, he does not
sell these or tell us how to get them. It’s just for comparison between
the types of courses. However, there does seem to be the possibility of
developing an addiction of sorts. Three of the people from the February
class repeated the August class and brought family members with them.)
A Special Forces Battalion surgeon, University of Utah Medical School
faculty member, Utah Emergency Physician of the Year, paramedic– the
list goes on. This is Dr. Steve Pehrson, the man behind OnPoint
Tactical’s Off-Grid Medicine course. The list of credentials might be as
intimidating as it is impressive and could scare some potential
students away. However, what isn’t mentioned in his biography and course
description is that Dr. Steve Pehrson is this kind of cuddly-looking
grandpa with a great sense of humor and surprising lack of the
God-complex that seems to afflict some doctors.
When asked what he likes to do for fun he replied, “Teach this
class.” It must be true because Steve starts at 8:00 to 8:30, and he’s
usually still going strong 12 hours later. Then he’s ready to start
again the next morning! And the students are, too.
Dr. Steve somehow provides simple explanations of complex anatomical
and physiological processes and chemistry. (If I’d had him as a
professor in college, I might have followed through with the original
plan of studying medicine.) But familiarity with medicine is definitely
not a prerequisite. In fact, in the two classes I have attended, there
has only been one person in each class with any formal training in
medicine. The rest have been regular people—student, pilot, wilderness
guide, computer guy, homeschool mom, et cetera. And while Steve’s
experience includes extensive time treating people all over the world
during humanitarian missions, as well as treating weekend warriors in
the emergency room, parents too will benefit greatly from this class.
This is because in addition to everything else Steve is also a family
physician.
Before class, Steve emails links to lectures and articles to be
reviewed prior to the start of class. This advance class material allows
more hands on time. He tailors each class to the students. It is
slightly different each time based on what worked in previous classes
and the desires of the students. This course is designed for people who
want to be prepared for a time when there is no doctor or other medical
care available to be able to handle broken bones, disease, serious
wounds and blood loss, and other acute and chronic conditions, ranging
from infants to the elderly. At the start of class, Steve provides a
binder of copies of almost every slide used in his presentation with
space for note-taking.
Doctor Steve is not actually teaching brain surgery. He does show
what you can do to save a person’s life and quality of life by means of
suturing, splinting, anesthesia, supply acquisition, and other skills.
He tries to help students accept that there are going to be deaths
because the technology we take for granted today will someday disappear.
Sstudents are taught how to manage modern medical issues without modern
technology, without resupply, and at the same time how to address the
communicable diseases that most doctors have never even seen. And
because modern medicine isn’t always going to be here, and neither is
our pharmaceutical industry, Steve also shares his personal experiences
with the use of herbal medicines or brings in other experts in that
field.
The vast majority of that 1-2% of the population who prepares for
TEOTWAWKI
does so at the baby aspirin level. They may have some OTC meds and
antibiotics, some sutures, and maybe a surgical kit. Dr. Steve educates
you on how to use those tools in your surgical kit and what else you are
going to want to have and be able to use,
or available for someone else to use. Let’s face it. We know what’s
coming, and baby aspirin ain’t gonna cut it.
The following is what I wrote in reply to a question posted in response to this review.
I could have left a much longer review, but I wasn’t sure how
much would be appropriate. The course my husband, daughter, and I took
was five full days–three 11-12 hour days, one 10-hour day, and one
8-hour day. Again, a lot of that depends on the students’ desires.
Lunchtime was always a “working” lunch–20-30 minutes to grab lunch and
bring it back for informal discussion and questions. Our cost for the
Salt Lake City class, was $795 each; however, it was supposed to be
$1100 each, as was the case for the Denver class. Due to technical
errors on the website, the owners decided to keep with the advertised
$795, but not include the surgical set and many other items but made
those available for purchase.
The OnPoint Tactical website (
onpointtactical.com) does not provide a
whole lot of detailed information on the course, unfortunately. You
could try contacting them directly for your specific questions. I
hesitate to post Dr. Steve’s email address here, but if you can get hold
of him thru OnPoint Tactical, he is great about answering questions.
I’ve emailed him countless times since the Denver class in February, and
he always responds in great detail about the medical questions, proper
procedures, dosages, sources for supplies, etc.
As to how often the class is offered, I know that Dr. Steve wants to
hold many, many more. He knows what is coming, and there just aren’t
going to be prepared doctors available for everyone who needs them, with
all the necessary supplies. The problem has been a matter of how to
best get the info out to people.
As far as experiences, where to begin….
–Maintaining medical records, how to take a proper patient history,
asking exact questions. How did that bone fracture occur? Without
x-rays, you need to be able to figure out exactly how that bone broke to
set it properly
–How to tape a badly sprained ankle (and how to tell the difference
between a sprain and a break without X-rays) so that the injured person
can continue walking without crutches
–Different suture techniques and materials and their various uses–and when not to suture.
–Proper sterilization of tools and supplies–without an autoclave
–Moving patients
–People with conditions that modern technology manages today but who
will die without our technology, sooner or later, and being able to
accept that–and accept that their families will be angry if you make the
decision not to treat and save precious resources for those who can be
helped. Like burn patients–even a burn covering 10% of the body can be
life-threatening. A burn covering 25-30%? That person will use up a
heckuva lot of resources, and will die anyway. What are you going to
do?
–Anesthesia–how to administer local anesthetics, how to obtain them
(yes, you can legally purchase and possess lidocaine and epinephrine–and
those two alone can be very, very beneficial)
–How to use OTC meds to be the equivalent of prescription strength meds
–Checking vitals
–Various medical bags, what he carries, what is pointless, how to package and pack supplies for ease of use, etc.
–Where to get supplies, especially reusable supplies
–Dehydration, and how to hydrate without an IV (because inserting an
IV is a perishable skill, and it’s really hard even for trained
personnel to put an IV into someone who is seriously dehydrated)
Unlike the attached picture suggests, this class is all indoors,
other than the brief plant walk we took with the herbal medic Sam
Coffman.
The herbal portion of the class covered two days. It covered the
process of making herbal tinctures, the importance of understanding the
herbs you use (do no harm), combining herbs to achieve the best results,
herbal antibiotics.
Again, this is not first aid. It’s not EMT school. This is stuff
most parents would love to know before having children (you know, like
whether that cut requires a trip to the ER, whether that sprain is going
to heal on its own, whether you can handle that shoulder dislocation
yourself and avoid the ER altogether, etc.). It’s stuff every serious
backpacker and homesteader should know–the stuff all of us really should
know even if TEOTWAWKI never happens.
© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com
The OnPoint Tactical website (onpointtactical.com) does not provide a whole lot of detailed information on the course, unfortunately. You could try contacting them directly for your specific questions. I hesitate to post Dr. Steve’s email address here, but if you can get hold of him thru OnPoint Tactical, he is great about answering questions. I’ve emailed him countless times since the Denver class in February, and he always responds in great detail about the medical questions, proper procedures, dosages, sources for supplies, etc.
As to how often the class is offered, I know that Dr. Steve wants to hold many, many more. He knows what is coming, and there just aren’t going to be prepared doctors available for everyone who needs them, with all the necessary supplies. The problem has been a matter of how to best get the info out to people.
As far as experiences, where to begin….
–Maintaining medical records, how to take a proper patient history, asking exact questions. How did that bone fracture occur? Without x-rays, you need to be able to figure out exactly how that bone broke to set it properly
–How to tape a badly sprained ankle (and how to tell the difference between a sprain and a break without X-rays) so that the injured person can continue walking without crutches
–Different suture techniques and materials and their various uses–and when not to suture.
–Proper sterilization of tools and supplies–without an autoclave
–Moving patients
–People with conditions that modern technology manages today but who will die without our technology, sooner or later, and being able to accept that–and accept that their families will be angry if you make the decision not to treat and save precious resources for those who can be helped. Like burn patients–even a burn covering 10% of the body can be life-threatening. A burn covering 25-30%? That person will use up a heckuva lot of resources, and will die anyway. What are you going to do?
–Anesthesia–how to administer local anesthetics, how to obtain them (yes, you can legally purchase and possess lidocaine and epinephrine–and those two alone can be very, very beneficial)
–How to use OTC meds to be the equivalent of prescription strength meds
–Checking vitals
–Various medical bags, what he carries, what is pointless, how to package and pack supplies for ease of use, etc.
–Where to get supplies, especially reusable supplies
–Dehydration, and how to hydrate without an IV (because inserting an IV is a perishable skill, and it’s really hard even for trained personnel to put an IV into someone who is seriously dehydrated)
Unlike the attached picture suggests, this class is all indoors, other than the brief plant walk we took with the herbal medic Sam Coffman.
The herbal portion of the class covered two days. It covered the process of making herbal tinctures, the importance of understanding the herbs you use (do no harm), combining herbs to achieve the best results, herbal antibiotics.
Again, this is not first aid. It’s not EMT school. This is stuff most parents would love to know before having children (you know, like whether that cut requires a trip to the ER, whether that sprain is going to heal on its own, whether you can handle that shoulder dislocation yourself and avoid the ER altogether, etc.). It’s stuff every serious backpacker and homesteader should know–the stuff all of us really should know even if TEOTWAWKI never happens.
© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com