Last weekend I finally completed something that I started 3 years ago – my wilderness medical training.
Wilderness Medical Training run courses for lay-people and doctors venturing away from civilisation and its medical amenities. One of their directors actually helped to write “the book” (Oxford Handbook of Expedition and Wilderness Medicine)
on such matters, so the training and course materials really are excellent.
The main courses are the 4-day AMRFT (Advanced Medicine for Remote Foreign Travel), or split into 2 x 2-day courses called FFH (Far From Help). I completed FFH-1 as part of my Woodsmoke expedition skills course back in 2007, and have just completed FFH-2 before my 3 year window closed.
The courses cover basic and advanced first aid procedures, and go beyond to include secondary aid. The basic techniques can be applied in everyday life, as any first aider would do if they happened upon an emergency, but much of what is taught is only applicable when the nearest healthcare is days away.
- How do you evacuate someone with a broken neck?
- How do you remove a motorcycle helmet from a crashed rider?
- What do you do with a shoulder dislocation?
- What medication is needed for a chest infection?
- How do you recognise /spell /deal with a tension pneumothorax?
- How do you get fluids into an unconscious person?
- How do you stitch a wound?
All these questions and more are answered in a very hands-on manner: there is plenty of discussion in the classroom learning and frequent practical sessions. This weekend the most standard thing I did was to put some arms in slings. That was before I put a leg in traction, inserted a naso-gastric tube, gave an intra-muscular injection, applied local anaesthetic, inserted a canula for a drip and practiced suturing (on some fake flesh – we weren’t allowed to slice each other open).
Dr Qureshi also delighted us with some photos from his personal collection, including what was left of an ankle after a polar bear had lunch, and the result of lighting a firework in your mouth. If that isn’t quite your cup of tea, a sip of Twinnings and a chat with the other students would soon take your mind off it: expedition leaders, researchers, TV directors, couples driving round the world, bush pilots and a fellow going to ride a horse through Africa. Conversation is never dull!
The venue in Oxford was close to my hostel, which was around the corner from the bus, which goes regularly to the airport. Oxford’s other benefits are beautiful buildings, bicycles everywhere, excellent cheap pub food, Old Rosie cider, and that girl with the amazing hair sitting in the window of Starbucks. I can’t gurantee she’ll still be there, but I’ll probably go back for a look someday – I missed trying a crumble & custard cheesecake with clotted cream so it wouldn’t be an entirely frivillous journey.
To summarise: excellent venue, content, instructors, students, and materials. I find the knowledge and experience very empowering and reassuring. Physically I have a new handbook and two small holes in my arm to show for the weekend, but my capability to make a difference, if things go wrong Far From Help, is very much greater.
