Spent the weekend with some of the country's best willderness medical experts getting my AWLS certification. Hosted by the Appalachian Wilderness Center, the group of more than 30 went thru senarios and life saving techniques used in the wilderness.
An amazing assembly of medical professionals both as instructors and as students in the mountains of western North Carolina...an ER doctor from Harvard with Everest experience, numerous military personnel, a heart surgeon from the New England, paramedics from Greenville, a physical therapist, an orthopedic surgeon, an MD just back from a stint in Ethiopia, and a Paramedic from 'down under' in the room and everything in between.
Arguably one of the most interesting exchanges was between the instructors and a student. The subject was dressing cavity wounds. The discussion involved somewhat new technology to acheive hemostasis. To stop the bleeding at the source using quick clotting gauze and powder. Based on studies done the quick clot gauze proved highly effective in stopping the bleeding. A young man, who was obviously just home from the war in Afghanistan, rebutted all the technology with his gear that he uses when he goes out on patrol. A few rolls of gauze and an ACE bandage. Saving lives with gauze and ACE bandage!
Learned a great deal and realize again how much more I don't know.
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