Re: [Philmont]: Wilderness First Aid

In a message dated 5/10/2004 10:02:49 PM Eastern Standard Time,
mickmeyer@cox.net writes:
what are some of the medical emergencies that you've encountered at Philmont?
 Have your crew first aid kits been adequate for the job or were there items
that you've added? Any items in the first aid kit that you've never used and
plan to
remove?
We had lots of blisters and hot spots, mostly in the first half of the trek.
Nearly ran out of 4 x 4 gauze pads and adhesive tape. Moleskin held out OK.
One scout had frequent nosebleeds in the dry air and those used up a LOT of
gauze.

Suggestion for nosebleed from a staff member at Beaubein: use chapstick up
the nostrils first thing in the morning (applied gently with the little finger).
 It seemed to work pretty well.

We had one face plant on the hike down Mt Phillips. Very scary, but the
scout was uninjured, tho briefly "out." Lucky.

Fatigue and the abovementioned fall led that one scout to become emotionally
unstable. The fall and general fatigue seemed to "push him over the edge."
We had conference with crew leader and his assistant and the affected scout.
They addressed the matter and worked out a solution that held him together for
the balance of the trek (3 days).

We had a lot of ointment, bandaids, sanitizer that we didn't use. Don't
skimp and buy cheap bandaids. We got a "deal" on a donated bunch but they didn't
stick worth a darn. The Johnson & Johnson folks know how to put on a good
adhesive; other's don't seem to have that skill.

We had too much in the way of hygiene supplies for our crew of 11. Can't
recall if we used Philmont's suggestions or another source to fill out our kits.

We were lucky in that we had few first aid emergencies other than blisters,
one scout with massive nose bleeds each day (used a lot of gauze), and the fall
with subsequent meltdown. No sunburn whatsoever, tho' we all wore hats all
the time.

We heard of evacs while on the trail but did not see any first hand.

Blister first aid kits on the trail are expensive, Spenco (I think). You
don't get much choice on supplies. In 2003, trading posts did not sell adhesive
tape or gauze pads as separate items; just complete, packaged kits with
scissors, pads, tape, moleskin, etc. for about $6.

Charlie Pineo
Assoc. Crew Advisor
Troop 994 Contingent
Woodstock, GA
Trek 4, 721B2, 2003
www.troop994.org

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Received on Tue May 11 02:24:34 2004