|  I quarrel with Rushdie because he articulates as eloquently as anyone the orthodoxy that I wish to counter: the belief that movement is inherently good, staying put is bad; that uprooting brings tolerance, while rootedness breeds intolerance; that imaginary homelands are preferable to geographical ones; that to be modern, enlightened, fully of our time is to be displaced. Wholesale dis-placement may be inevitable; but we should not suppose that it occurs without disastrous consequences for the earth and for ourselves. People who root themselves in places are likelier to know and care for those places than are people who root themselves in ideas. When we cease to be migrants and become inhabitants, we might begin to pay enough heed and respect to where we are. By settling in, we have a chance of making a durable home for ourselves, our fellow creatures, and our descendants.
— Scott Russell Sanders What in the world is the relevance of texts on tactical medicine? Well, texts on combat or tactical medicine – which includes emergency care for law enforcement officers under fire – deal with many of the same subjects as the trauma texts, but include other topics as well – ballistic and blast wounds, for example. It is, in fact, surprising to me that wilderness first aid texts tend not to cover bullet wounds, which certainly can occur in the wilderness, especially among hunters, or to others during hunting season. Also, for those wilderness care providers who have been certified as First Responders or EMTs, and therefore may be called upon to care for the ill or injured in emergency situations, texts on biological and chemical warfare have taken on a new and terrible interest.
 Ragnar Benson, Survival Nurse: Running an Emergency Nursing Station (Boulder CO: Paladin Press, 2000), ISBN 1-58160-075-5. This book examines the delivery of nursing services under long-term adverse conditions, such as a military or survival situation – how to sew up wounds, pull teeth, deliver babies, and provide physical therapy; what supplies to keep in stock and how to obtain them; tricks for handling the mountains of laundry generated by a nursing station; and how to maintain a low profile under hostile circumstances. The medicine is very basic, but the book contains lots of very helpful hints and tricks for maintaining a long-term aid station.
 Thomas E. Bowen, et al., Emergency War Surgery: Second United States Revision Of The Emergency War Surgery NATO Handbook (Washington DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1988). This book is designed for young doctors who suddenly find themselves practicing war surgery. While some chapters – such as those on blast injuries, laser injuries to the eyes, and mass casualties in thermonuclear war – are not likely to be of recurring usefulness in the wilderness, the book does have good general chapters on burns, cold injuries, infections, and, of course, wounds of every imaginable kind. It covers missile-caused wounds, burn injury, cold injury, blast injuries, chemical injury, mass casualties in a thermonuclear war, and multiple injuries. It also offers general discussions of the response of the body to wounding and basic considerations of wound management.
 Hugh L. Coffee, Ditch Medicine (Boulder CO: Paladin Press, 1993), ISBN 0-87364-717-3. I don’t know what Hugh Coffee’s background and training are, but he writes very clearly about emergency field procedures that are usually considered beyond the scope of practice of a first responder or EMT-B, such as suturing, cricothyroidotomy, chest decompression, intravenous therapy, intubation, nerve blocks, and amputation. The illustrations are very clear and helpful. I would hate to have to do any of these procedures based only on an explanation in a book, without hands-on field experience; but if you ever have to do it, this would be the book to use. A good companion volume to this book is B.A. Landon’s Atlas of Trauma Management (London UK: The Parthenon Publishing Group, 1994), ISBN 1-85070-411-2.
 Robert A. De Lorenzo, et al., Tactical Emergency Care: Military and Operational Out-of-Hospital Medicine (Upper Saddle River NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1999), ISBN 0-8359-5325-4. This text is a thorough and clear exposition of the basic principles of tactical EMS for both military and law-enforcement operations, including discussions of evacuation, environmental medicine, triage, and ambulatory case. Outstanding.
 Robert A. De Lorenzo, et al., Weapons of Mass Destruction Emergency Care (Upper Saddle River NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 2000), ISBN 0-13-013923-8. This is a thorough and up-to-date manual for emergency medical service personnel faced with disasters caused by nuclear, biological, chemical and other weapons that inflict large-scale casualties on civilian populations. Highly recommended.
 First Responder Chem-Bio Handbook: A Practical Manual for First Responders (Alexandra VA: Tempest Publishing, Inc., 1998), ISBN 0-9665437-0-X. This is a small, pocket-size, wire-bound reference book setting out the primary biological and chemical attacks that might confront first responders such as police and firefighters. For each biological or chemical agent there is a brief description of signs and symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment. Very handy to have.
 Ian McDevitt, Tactical Medicine: An Introduction to Law Enforcement Emergency Care (Boulder CO: Paladin Press, 2001), ISBN 1581602553. Written by a veteran tactical medic, this book is an introduction to providing critical medical care under fire. Topics include the three stages of tactical medicine, the priorities of administering care under fire, the realities of setting up an efficient triage system, equipment and supplies for a tactical medicine kit, and the best methods for transporting gear while on the scene.
 United States Army Institute for Military Assistance, US Army Special Forces Medical Handbook ST 31-91B (New York NY: Citadel Press, 1990), ISBN 0-8065-1045-5. This often reprinted book is more an extended outline than a text, and is useful not so much as a learning tool but rather as a review and reference for trained medics. It is extraordinarily comprehensive: it has, for example, excellent short sections on childbirth, dentistry, field sanitation, and maggot therapy. It is small in size, relatively inexpensive, and very much worth having.
|
