Re: [Philmont]: Wilderness First Aid

> From you experienced Philmont trekkers out there, 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?
>

As far as the first aid kit, our crews take what Philmont recommends.
That has worked well for us as the kits have been adequate for treatment
of all but serious medical conditions.

We've had two serious medical conditions at Philmont. The first was in
'95 when an adult had to be transported back to CHQ due to heat exhaustion.
This happened on the trail going from Thunder Ridge to Cyphers Mine, about
100 yds. from Cyphers. We sent four Scouts on to Cyphers and the staff
responded within 5 minutes. The adult stayed in the medical lodge for two
days and then rejoined the crew at Cathedral Rock and finished the trek.
She still doesn't remember the incident on the trail to Cyphers.

In 1997, a Scout fractured an arm while helping to hang the bear bags at
Copper Park. Running backwards and tripped. Since Copper Park is a staff
camp, the crew didn't have to do a whole lot of first aid as the staff
handled this. His dad had to travel to Philmont and transport him home.
The boy went back to Philmont for Cavalcade in '98, for a trek in '99,
for Kanik in '00 and spent the summer of '01 as a back country staffer
so the fractured arm in '97 was not the end of his Philmont career.

> The Philmont guidebook says most injuries happen at the end of the day
> while in camp for the evening. That's probably consistent with the
> old rule of thumb that 80% of sports injuries occur during the last
> 20% of the game.

That's been our experience too.

YiS,

-- 
Calvin H. Gray
Scoutmaster, Troop 405
Associate Advisor, Venturing Crew 405
Georgetown, Texas
I used to be an Owl (WM-62-2-98 @ Philmont)
http://www.troop405.org/
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