RE: [Philmont]: Suture Kit

In 1996 we camped one night at Cyphers mine and slept in the Adirondacks. We
had a kid get up at 3 am to pee and missed the steps down and fell out of
the hut and rolled down a rocky embankment below. He was bleeding profusely
from the mouth when we got to him. We woke the camp staff and they brought a
huge first aid kit to the scene. They examined him by flashlight and
determined that he had torn his lower lip away from the jaw at the gum line.
They notified HQ and my co-advisor, who had accompanied the staff member
back to his cabin to make the radio call, noted that who ever was back in
base camp must have been sleeping at his post as they had to relay the
message several time before anyone answered back in a sleepy voice. We
cleaned him up and as it was a mouth wound it clotted quickly. A basecamp
Chevy Suburban (bright yellow) showed up at 10 am to drive him to the health
lodge and we prepared to depart on the trail (Comanche Peak via Thunder
Ridge as I recall). The Suburban transmission went out and they had to
request another vehicle. We were told to head on as the day was getting away
from us. The boy showed up 2 days later at our camp (Clear Creek as I
recall). He had had 15 stitches in his mouth and he told us the backup
vehicle didnt get him back to base camp until 4 pm, 13 hours after the
injury.

I cant imagine anyone being qualified to have sanitized his wound and
stitched him up in the field. Remember, the backcountry staffers are often
well trained but they are not MASH units!

On the subject of having to redo what one doctor had done, I think my dad
holds the record for the worse case. He broke his leg in 1925 diving into
water that was too shallow while living in Peking, China. The leg was set
but hospitals that were worth a darn were few and far between and he had to
have the leg reset by another doctor the following day. Because he hated the
choking feeling associated with chloroform that he had experienced the first
time he grit his teeth and the doctor reset it with no anesthetic. Were
talking pulling the break apart and resetting it here! To this day he avoids
pain medication and has had 2 root canals with nothing for the pain. YIKES!

YOF
Chris in Houston

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Received on Mon Jun 23 15:51:31 2003