Truth is often less fun than tradition, and maybe that accounts for the wealth of myths associated with wilderness first aid and survival. Too much fun is a rare achievement, but, in these cases, what you don't know can hurt you...and sometimes turn your fishing or hunting trip into a fatal experience.
MYTH: Use a tourniquet to stop serious bleeding.
Truth: all bleeding stops. Sometimes it doesn't stop soon enough to save the life of the bleeder, but serious blood loss can almost always be stopped without a tourniquet. Tourniquets violently crush blood vessels and other tissues, cutting off all blood flow. Everything beyond the tourniquet starts to die from lack of circulation. If a tourniquet is used, it should only be left on for a maximum of 45 minutes.
In the wilderness, small bleeding wounds are best left to stop on their own since they sort of "self-clean" in the process. Larger wounds should have direct pressure applied to them to encourage the bleeding to stop. Grab a bandanna or a shirt, cover the wound, and press down hard directly on where the blood is coming out. Elevate the wound above the heart of the wounded person to assist the direct pressure. Maintain direct pressure and elevation until the bleeding stops. Then clean, dress, and bandage the wound.
MYTH: A shot of tequila will warm up a cold or hypothermic person.
Truth: booze will have the reverse effect on someone who is cold. Alcohol causes blood vessels to dilate, giving a "warm feeling" but actually increasing heat loss from the skin. Booze also loosens one's grip on judgment and interferes with coordination, and both can be deadly in the cold outdoors.
MYTH: Rub snow on frostbite.
This old "treatment" came out of Napoleon's failed attempt to invade Russia during the winter of 1811-12. Used to the cold, the Russians bundled up and waited until the ice and snow destroyed the French. Nappy's troops would freeze during the day and thaw out their frozen parts by roaring fires at night. Sudden heat turned the frostbite to burns and snow was rubbed on to make the burns feel better.
Truth: hard frozen body parts should be wrapped in dry, insulating material and evacuated to a hospital without an attempt at rewarming. Soft, pliable frozen parts should be rewarmed gently in the wilderness with skin-to-skin contact. No fires, or hot stoves...or rubbing. Once thawed, all frostbitten extremities should be protected carefully against refreezing.
MYTH: Put butter on burns.
Truth: anything oily is bad for a burn. Initially, the oil traps heat and furthers the burning process. Later, the grease holds bacteria and is difficult to wash off, making wound cleaning tough. The best treatment is plunging the burn into cool water, or wrapping it in cotton soaked with water. Keep up the cooling for several minutes. Then cover the injury with a sterile gauze dressing.
MYTH: Cut and suck a snakebite.
Truth: the butchering techniques of the cut-and-suckers remove minute amounts of venom while producing horrible wounds that become terrible infections.
More truth: rattlesnakes have some control over the amount of venom they inject, and 25-30 percent of rattler-bites-human encounters involve no venom. The application of cold and tourniquets are also no-no's for snakebites.
Keep the patient calm, clean their wound gently, splint their bitten extremity, and carry them to a hospital. If the patient must walk, walk slowly and take breaks often. Same goes for a coral snake's bite.
And, for the record: a rattlesnake always buzzes before striking? No! But they have to coil first? Wrong! But if they do coil, they can leap prodigious distances to bite? No, they'd be lucky to hit something two-thirds their length away.
MYTH: Immediately soak a sprained ankle in warm water to speed healing.
Truth: heat increases pain and swelling, and slows healing. Sprains like it cold. Immediate Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation (RICE) is the best treatment. "Ice" doesn't have to be frozen water. It can be cold water, snow, commercial break-and-apply cold packs, or evaporation from a water-soaked cloth.
Keep up the RICE for 20-30 minutes, then let the injury naturally rewarm before trying to use it. Ideally, RICE should be re-applied several times a day for a couple of days. When the swelling is gone, then heat may be tried to increase healthy, healing circulation. If the swelling returns, go back to cold.
MYTH: Those "struck dead" by lightning are permanently dead.
Sometimes they are, but more often their hearts are stopped and their drive to breathe is short-circuited by the electrical blast. Truth: victims of lightning strikes are usually salvageable with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
MYTH: Since the brain dies after being deprived of oxygen for 4-6 minutes, victims submerged in water longer than that are beyond resuscitation.
Truth: the colder the water, the longer a victim may survive submersion. Cold reduces the brain's need for oxygen, and one victim has been revived after 66 minutes of witnessed entrapment under water. Once again, the treatment is CPR, but don't be surprised if it does not seem to be working. Keep it up, and evacuate the victim to a hospital as soon as possible.
MYTH: Never let someone who has a head injury sleep.
This refers to someone who has a swelling brain. If pressure on their brain increases to the point where they cannot remain conscious, surgery is usually required to release the pressure.
Truth: in the wilderness, this patient's best chance of recovery may be to sleep as undisturbed as possible while a rapid evacuation means is sought.
MYTH: Clear water tumbling over sun-washed rocks is naturally purified.
Truth: moving water stirs up bacteria and disease-causing protozoa increasing the chance they'll be ingested when someone takes a drink. Better to take water from the middle of a still mountain lake. Better yet is to carry the means to disinfect backcountry water.
MYTH: God watches out for the ignorant. Truth: ignorance is no excuse.
Copyright (c) 1996 Buck Tilton. All rights reserved.