Medical emergencies in the woods
Elk
Contributors to this thread:
Might be a good idea to relate some medical emergencies...and how you dealt with it on a hunt...maybe save someone this year, who knows?
Plenty of well prepared bowhunters here...and of course prevention is key...though I don't know how a guy can prevent a broken leg or something like that. Cmon, there must be some good stories out there.....
Sewn up a cut before Dislocated an artificial knee. Very uncomfortable. Fortunately my brother was there and had him pull on it until it popped in. Since this had happened before and required an ambulance ride to the ER and being knocked out to put back in I asked the dr about it. He let me know that I had just a very short tortoises of time to pop it in. Once the muscles start to spasm forget it. I do carry plenty of parachute cord with me just in case. I'm usually hunting alone.
A hunter I was guiding collapsed on opening morning about an hour into the hunt. He was in great shape and had done a treadmill and EKG before coming to CO. I was on him immediately, no pulse, no breathing.
Long story short I gave him CPR until he was blue and cold but couldn't save him. His wife didn't want to do an autopsy. She said after all he'd been through in three wars that dying on the mountain with bulls bugling around was ok.
It was a pretty serious situation and I did the best I could. Not sure anyone could've saved him unless they had a defibrillator with them.
My uncle dragged a huge 13 pt Ohio whitetail until he couldn't go any farther then buried it in leaves afraid someone would take it. He sat to rest against a tree and never got up. He was 53. His grandson has the rack hanging in his bedroom. Lesson? Either hunt with someone or don't do more than you're capable of. It was a big deer but hardly worth his life.
Going out this year above treeline with a flatlander!! Luckily he's a medic in the military. Hope I or us don't need his training!!
I hunt solo and alot of remote areas.... I wear a 911 card, on my neck. It is laminated, has my name and a emergency info, blood type, allergy stuff, and medications etc. So if found, at least those who would render care, would have some good info.
I found a hunter with a severe eye injury once, in the woods. In my pack, I had small paper cup, which I used to cover the eye, and wrap, and then took the individual to the hospital.....
Another time my brother in law from Florida insisted on going up above timberline on his second day in CO. He had a Grand Mal seizure on a goat trail and it was all I could do to hold him in place until it subsided. Some hikers came along and I sent them for help. We carried him out on a stretcher to a 4WD ambulance.
He'd never had a seizure before or since. I think it was related to acute altitude sickness but we never figured it out.
I hunt and scout alone most of the time, in bad places. I carry a Spot, full survival and first aid kit, Quick Clot, etc.. but you never know what will happen in the woods when you least expect it.
My dr told me never to see myself up again. When I left he gave me a package of sterilized sutures. Duct tape is a must. Great for emergency truck repairs such as a hole in a water hose. Just don't put the radiator cap on tight. I also take antibiotics. After getting a staph infection and getting septicemia if any cut or abrasion looks infected I'm starting them.
On a wilderness canoe trip, I once came across a guy who was making a mountain house dinner and dropped his pot of boiling water. It dumped on his lower shin and poured into the tongue of his boot. His sock and boot held the scalding water against his ankle and the top of his foot while he tried to untie and pull them off. The damage was done before he could get his foot in the lake.
He refused our multiple offers to paddle him out. I have no idea what happened to him.
I think about that guy every time I make a freeze dried meal. Watch those pots of boiling water. Especially when you're thrashed and a little unfocused at the end of a long day. It was amazing how badly he was burned.
I got good life insurance on my wife and on me, one of us will do well;-)
I'm fortunate to have nothing too serious to personally report. I've seen a few things though. Elkreaper wrote a thread on here a couple years ago about experiencing kidney stones in the backcountry. It was intense, thought - provoking and scary.
A tampon can do wonders staunching the flow of blood from an accidental broadhead wound...no wonder my wife was looking at me funny
Slightly off topic [or rather off continent], when asked what could be done for Black Mamba bites, the PH simply said 'you've got ten minutes so find a shady spot, make your peace with your God and make sure you have signed all your traveller cheques...'
quick clot, tampon and duct tape!
You really do need some type of bandage and a way to stop the bleeding.
On a rock climbing trip years ago a guy fell and compound fractured his leg. We cut up a tee shirt and used an ace bandage to stifle the bleeding. It only took a few minutes for it to start leaking. Luckily between 4 of us we were able to carry him out quickly. If there hadn't been so much help I would have been very concerned by the amount of blood lose.
I've cut myself pretty bad on two occasions. The first time I was field dressing a deer. It was hot and the blow flies were getting bad. I swatted at a fly with my left hand and accidently hit my knife blade I was holding in my right hand. It hit the outside of my left thumb and went all the way to the nail. Talk about pain! Luckily, my Dad was with me. He said "Ahhh, that's just a good ol' cut. You'll be fine". He had small hand towel, cut it into strips and bandaged me up. We got the deer back to the truck with me dribbling blood the whole way. It was 2 hrs before it stopped bleeding. I never got it stitched up but probably should have. It could have been much worse. The other time I had built a ground blind and was clearing shooting lanes with a folding pruning saw. I yanked the saw through a limb and hit the end of my left middle finger with the saw. Those blades are wicked! The end of my finger was laid wide open and I saw the bone. I had a small towel in my pack and did just like my Dad had fixed me up before. I had a 1/2 mile hike to my 4wheeler, then a 1 mile drive to the truck. I loaded 4wheeler into bed of the truck and drove to one of those Urgent Care deals. The Dr. there turned me away and told me to go the big hospital ER. That's where I got to see our wonderful health care system in action. 7 hours and 4 stitches later I was released. X-ray showed I cut the tip of the bone off. Only good thing was the nurse that sewed me up was SMOKING HOT! I asked her out but she was married. I had to try. She was cool about it. Moral of my stories is be careful when gutting/skinning animals and watch those pruning saws!
Deer hunting with some friends of mine in northern Maine and one of the guys fell and broke his hip. Left two guys with him and two of us drove out fifteen miles on dirt roads to call for an ambulance. 17 degrees out and a foot of snow. 4 hours later and well after dark the ambulance showed up but no 4 WD. 1 fat girl with a bad back and 1 skinny kid. Put all four of us in the front seat of my truck and drove back. Me and my buddies carried him uphill a quarter mile. Poor bastard had to ride in the bed of the truck screaming the whole way out on rough roads. Broke hip at 11:00 AM and didn't get him in the ambulance until 10:00PM. Slight shock had set in and of course he was also a bleeder.
I've had a couple situations where sutures in the backcountry was necessary- luckily I've had plenty of practice from owning hog hunting dogs.
The worst situation I've seen was when our assistant guide walked into a brush patch looking for a wounded Water Buffalo and got trampled badly. When i went in there I thought the guy was dead- turns out he was knocked out and busted up badly with multiple broken bones- he was lucky the thick brush cushioned the blows, on hard open ground he would have been a bag of broken bones.
It was about an hour to get the guy off the station- had to get the buff killed first as it was a danger to the station owner tending his place...and about a 5 hour drive on mostly rough dirt roads to get to Darwin and a hospital- that had to be an uncomfortable trip. Its incidents like this that make me think that Global Rescue at about $400 a year [I think] is worth it.
Google "super glue for cuts" read it and carry it.
When I'm hunting in a remote area I bring quick clot, skin glue and a surgical stapler, no good at sutures. Along with a standard med kit. In the middle of no where I'd rather overkill then need.
While I was hunting for whitetail in Southern Illinois last year, I cut myself while setting up a tree stand using a pruning saw. It was a very bad cut, and it was just a good thing my son-in-law was there to help. By the time he got to me with a first aid kit, it looked liked someone had gutted a hog. I still have numbness in my thumb from this cut. My best advice when using a prune saw or skinning an animal is to slow down and take your time. Accidents do happen, but some of them can be avoided if we would just slow down and think about what we are doing. Be careful, and have a great hunting season.
A friend of mine fell out of a tree when deer hunting one time and ended up with a BH stuck behind his knee that went all the way thru and came out below his kneecap if I remember right. He unscrewed the BH, pulled the arrow out, wrapped it up as best he could and left a mile long blood trail back to his car and then drove himself to the hospital...That was back in the late 70's early 80's...Still hunts out of tree stand...
I remember years ago reading in the Illinois Hunting Incidents report that there was a bowhunter who drew on a deer that was walking towards him . As the deer walked under his homemade wooden stand he released, pinning his foot to the stand!!!!
Prevention, prevention....
Had a client collapse and go into seizure, no history and 26 yrs old. Took 5hrs to get him to a hospital, he was awake for 10 min. of the trip.
Long story short- his red blood cell count was off and his brain wasn't getting enough O2 at altitude. If your sick at altitude don't try to tough it out!! Altitude sickness can KILL you!! And don't hide it/lie about it from others in your party!!
Then there are the green horns who think they can ride horses........ nope!
My uncle dragged a huge 13 pt Ohio whitetail until he couldn't go any farther then buried it in leaves afraid someone would take it. He sat to rest against a tree and never got up. He was 53. His grandson has the rack hanging in his bedroom. Lesson? Either hunt with someone or don't do more than you're capable of. It was a big deer but hardly worth his life.
Friend chainsawed his leg. 12" hole in jeans. Used a coat hanger to wrap his leg. Dummy was drunk and was losing consciousness as we pulled up to emergency. Cut was about 6" long above knee inside of thigh. Don't recall why we chose coat hanger instead of a shirt or something. Doc thought he may not make it cuz he couldn't sew hamburger.
Randy-you can practice on banana peels.
I just breezed through some posts and one of the most common hunting accidents seem to be knife or broadhead cuts. One thing every bowhunter should carry in his emergency pouch is superglue! It can stop bleeding in a matter of seconds!
I once ran out of beer at camp. It was the closest thing to a medical emergency I've had.
I ran out of beer one time too...Luckily there was a bottle of 12 year old scotch to tide us over...
In over 30 years of hunting, I haven't had anything worse than a minor cut. After reading all of this I will prepare myself better in the event something does happen in the future.
I believe I haven't had any incidents due to the fact that I take riskier situations without haste and realize the potential dangers involved.
Take your time.
Beendare, props to you for starting a great thread.In our monthly safety meetings at work we report near misses and close calls to help others avoid similar situations. I've been very fortunate not to haveexperienced too many back country emergencies.my dad(59) took a pretty good digger trying to retrieve his mtn goat from a rockslide a few yrs back. Everything was going great but we hurrying to get off the mtn before dark when he caught his toe on a rock and did a full somersault off a 2ft step down. As soon as he hit, the rock he tripped on(probably 100pounder atleast) fell right on his head. He was flailing around unable to lift it off. I jumped down and picked it off of him, immediately blood covered his face. We used his handkerchief to bandage it up and headed to the ER. Made it there about midnight, he got 13 stitches in his melon. Lesson learned here was to slow down and take your time, you can always come back tomorrow. Another time I slid my buck knife thru my jeans by my femoral artery, didn't cut me but it could have been really bad. My big bro had just told me to slow down and be careful! To which I replied"its okay Daniel Boone I think know how to gut an elk!" Lol Alot of these accidents can be avoided by using a little PPE like safety glasses and leather gloves. I am very safety aware at work, it only makes sense to carry that attitude home!
H*ll!! Almost forgot my IBEP training...full body safety harness for sitting treestands over wallows etc
I still cannot believe how deadlu suspension trauma can be, never mind trying to ventilate various body parts with BHs, blades, etc.
As the man said 'Let's be careful out there...'
Good luck and good hunting out in the elk woods this season!!
I've been lucky enough not to have any serious injuries while hunting that involved myself or others. Nock on wood. The worst I've seen was when I was in my early teens. My dad was cleaning his muley buck (a very nice 180" 4x4 might I add), and stuck his buck knife through his hand. He had sharpened it with one of the stones he uses to sharpen his surgical knifes for oddtopys (he's a vet). He thought he just nicked himself and went back to work. When he was done gutting the buck we tried washing his hands off but the blood wouldn't go away. He had a hole in his hand almost big enough to fit a golf ball through. He wrapped it with a shirt, and we proceeded to drag this big bodied buck almost 3 miles back to the truck. At the truck he sowed himself up, and we went to the check in station. The ranger told us we probably wouldn't want to eat this buck seeing as how he had mange. My dad laughed and said, nope he's fine. He had all the hair on that side of his body when I shot him. He's just a little tendorized now. Haha.
I did witness a motorcycle crash on the way to a hunt once though. I guy and three of his buddies went screaming by on their harleys. He was the last of the bunch and hit a cattle guard at 90mph. His bike got head shake like you wouldn't believe. At that point he lost control and started flipping down the road right at us. I yelled to my wife, he's going to hit us. I swerved into the ditch just as him and his bike came flying through the air almost hitting my drivers side mirror. If I wouldn't have swerved he would have went through my windsheild. We turned around and found his bike, but couldn't find him in all the tumble weeds. On the 3rd pass we found him sitting up holding his arm. His right upper arm was broken and sticking out. His knee caps and his right butt cheek were just about completely gone (shaved off from the pavement), and his helmet was smashed in. I dropped my wife off with him and our first aid kit. We put down a tarp and carried him to it. I told her to put all the goss on his bleeding areas and to put pressure on them. At this point everything was going in SSSSSLLLLOOOOWWWW motion. I thought I'd be scared or something, but all my thoughts were short, immediate, and to the point. I burned rubber down the road (with my wife's eye balls wide open looking at me like wtf do I do) to the nearest spot I could get cell reception. After 17 miles I found cell reception and called 911. They said that they were sending an ambulance from Flagstaff, AZ. That's only like 120+ miles away. I ran back to my wife and we held the guy until his biker buddies came back (almost an hour later). Luckily right after they showed up some off duty EMTs drove by and helped us. After it was all said and done, it took him almost 7 hours to get to the hospital. My brothers wife was his nurse. Lol. Not to make the story any longer, but he did survive.
So thanks to the OP for starting this thread. ALWAYS bring some kind of first aid with you on any hunting trip. You never know when you are going to need it.
Any Global Rescue stories?
My wife and I helped with an atv accident last weekend while hiking. A guy had five young kids on a quad with him and rolled it off a steep trail, no one had a helmet on. He broke his finger bad and ran off in a panic apparently, leaving an 11-year-old stuck under the atv. My wife, who is a doctor, checked her out and the rest kept her stable until EMTs got there. I know a lot of you use atvs and such when hunting, so ride safe and wear your helmet!
in march of 2003 before we invaded Iraq, my platoon sergeant handed out tampons, saying, "trust me, it will save lives.''
Long story short, Ive stuffed tampons in a lot of bullet holes, puncture wounds and deep lacerations, I've always carried them with me since...
Something I've noticed is how long it can take me to get into my pack and pull out what i need from my med kit. Trying to find what i'm looking for amongst all the little things can take time and can be a mess, especially if i had to do it with limited mobility or quickly. two things I've decided I will put into practice are:
1) take the tiny non-essentials out of my kit. they only get in the way of the really important things and add extra weight for little benefit.
2) have kit (and epi-pen for bees) out and ready when breaking down an animal. How time consuming and difficult would it be for you to unroll two feet of duct tape when you have a gushing veinal slashed wrist and slippery blood all over your hands?
+1 Hoot
There is a good list of kit in the latest issue of Extreme Elk, written by an MD who is also a bowhunter [Dr Brian Rae I think....if I'm wrong, I apologise]
Back in the early 80's the club (600 acres) I was in at the time was extremely rough and hilly. We had an older hunter sitting in a home made ladder stand on a ridge top. The stand obviously was not secured and rolled around the tree dumping the hunter. He was usually the first back to camp after a morning hunt. Late morning he was not back at camp so we went to his stand and found him on the ground with a broken back. Someone went to town to get EMS (well before cell phones) while others went to camp to remove door to improvise a backboard. It was a grueling 3 hr trip to get the hunter out of the woods to an awaiting ambulance on the main blacktop. Fortunately he suffered no paralysis and was back at camp the following year. His hunting days were over but he enjoyed being the camp cook.
A hunting partner tried gutting an elk with a leatherman. He left his pack below, killed a bull and didn't want to interrupt another guys hunting. Just missed the important vessels but got our attention for sure.
Later after the bleeding slowed/stopped
We don't let him forget it either. My dad at a later Halloween party!
Actually we rode him off the mountain with a bandage and gutted his elk. When I rode in later I went past our neighboring camp and they asked how everything went... Well they ere a pair of ER nurses (guys) and when I asked if they had any business yet tonight, one got a little huffy and I thought maybe he was considering jerking me off my horse for making fun of him!! I told him what I meant and he went over and fixed him up pretty well.
Last summer we had a tree come down on my wife's step mother's horse 3 miles from the trailhead. Horse was ok but the fall broke a bunch of ribs on Susan. I heard the snap, but couldn't see which tree til it was almost on top of her (20 feet in front of me) The horse lunged at the last minute and it hit the cantle and his hip. Shot them both out from under it like a pinball. The horse's reflexes recovered it, but she hit the rocks!! ouch. She too rode slowly back out while one of us walked.
The wind had picked up as we were going through a burnt area. We didn't mess around as trees were poppy off here and there. Had it landed on her there was no way to get either out from under it. The horse would have probably beat her to death. Tree was about 20 inches in diameter were it broke!
Caution is learned and I am much more cautious than in my past for sure!!
I was backpacking to the San Jacinto peak with my brother about 7 yrs ago when we came upon a guy who had recently fallen. He was trying to filter water from a seep and was on the edge of a 6 foot drop as that was the only place it pooled.
Long story short, he fell and separated his left shoulder.
With my brother holding him from behind with my jacket, I reduced it and we saw him the next day with a full pack on - he said he was just a little sore.
Not elk hunting, but I had a homemade tree stand collapse with me in it! 1988. No safety belt. 18' free fall. First 17.5' were ok. Last 6" sucked!
Long story short, I clawed my way off the ground so I could walk back to my truck. Drove into town, past the hospital so I could get home and shed my camo, (So they wouldn't cut it off)
Split my eyebrow open (Stitches) and fractured a vertebrae (Compression fracture 20%). Could have been much worse. Spending 3 days in the hospital allows you to come up with many scenarios with terrible outcomes.
Safety belt, slow down with knife and cut away from yourself.