[Philmont] Notes from another Crew 1519

I have included an email from Larry Thimm, whose son Darrin Keller is a Ranger at Philmont this summer.  concerning Darrin's experiences with medical issues while on the trail.  The first situation happens on a regular basis.  The second is downright frightening.  It doesn't seem like either crew was very prepared.  Glad that Darrin is an EMT.  Darrin and Christian Braunlich from our crew are at Philmont this summer.

"Darrin called tonight. He was awaiting a crew that had a 4:30 arrival time. He was not pleased with that late time. 
 
While out with a crew last week, he had a very interesting day. Just into their short first day hike, a crew member started throwing up (multiple times). He was somewhat dehydrated and had just chugged a poweraide. Darrin cooled him off and since they were close to a camp (I think it was a turnaround), he and the camp directory radioed medical. Medical told them to not hike until after 5:30 PM (to keep cool). So, Darrin got a temporary camp site there, had them start dinner and worked on Ranger training. 
 
While working on this, two boys from another crew ran right through their camp site. Darrin told them to slow down and they said they were having an emergency. Darrin went with them and found a member of another crew passed out next to a creek. His advisors were there too. The boy keep going into seizures. Darrin once again got the camp director to call medical. He was convulsing every 3 minutes. The adults said he need pills (maybe calcium) for a heart condition and he had left them at medical. Well it turns out he had actually left the pills at home and not one had noticed. He was doing better and they evacuated him. He flew home the next day. 
 
Hard to believe that the advisors, parents and medical were so lax and missed this. 
 
The initial boy from Darin's crew was doing fine. But by the time they got done with all of this they just spent the night at this camp and did the days 1 and 2 hikes both on the second day. 
 
What fun. 
 
Larry" 

Cooper Wright
Warrenton, VA

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Received on Wed Jun 20 06:37:49 2007