|  The lessons we learn from the wild become the etiquette of freedom. We can enjoy our humanity with its flashy brains and sexual buzz, its social cravings and stubborn tantrums, and take ourselves as no more and no less than another being in the Big Watershed. We can accept each other all as barefoot equals sleeping on the same ground. We can give up hoping to be eternal and quit fighting dirt. We can chase off mosquitoes and fence out varmints without hating them. No expectations, alert and sufficient, grateful and careful, generous and direct. A calm and clarity attend us in the moment we are wiping the grease off our hands between tasks and glancing up at the passing clouds. Another joy is finally sitting down to have coffee with a friend. The wild requires that we learn the terrain, nod to all the animals and plants and birds, ford the streams and cross the ridges, and tell a good story when we get back home.
Gary Snyder Trauma is always one of the primary concerns in wilderness or survival situations, and there are a number of books written specifically on trauma for EMTs and emergency room nurses and doctors that are worth looking at.
 John Bache, et al., Practical Procedures in the Emergency Department (London UK: Mosby, 1998), ISBN 0-7234-3013-6. This book covers basic splinting, wound care, suturing, starting intravenous lines, taking blood samples, cricothyroidotomy, and other common emergency room procedures, with brief descriptions but numerous color photographs. Many of these procedures are beyond the scope of practice of first responders and EMTs, but are worth being familiar with; the color photographs are particularly helpful in preparing for the real thing, should it ever come to that. The text discusses and illustrates numerous common emergency room procedures, from removal of foreign bodies from the eye to nasal packing, from bladder catheterization to gastric lavage, and from venous cut-down to the use of skin-closure strips, with color photographs and step-by-step instructions.
 John E. Campbell, BTLS: Basic Trauma Life Support for the EMT-B and First Responder (Englewood NJ: Brady, 1998) ISBN 083595157X. This textbook for street EMTs is used as the text for the BTLS certification course developed by Basic Trauma Life Support International, a training organization in prehospital trauma care, and endorsed by the American College of Emergency Physicians and the National Association of EMS Physicians. The book covers rapid assessment, resuscitation, stabilization, and transportation of the trauma patient that is, getting the patient to an appropriate trauma center as quickly as possible, which is not often an option in the wilderness. Still, there is much in here that is helpful to know. The BTLS certification competes with the PHTLS certification, and covers pretty much the same ground; see Norman E. McSwain, PHTLS Basic And Advanced, discussed below.
 B.A. Landon, et al., An Atlas Of Trauma Management: The First Hour (London UK: The Parthenon Publishing Group, 1994), ISBN 1-85070-411-2. This book is designed to accompany the ATLS or Advanced Trauma Life Support course adopted by the American College of Surgeons, and it covers the advanced trauma interventions that are within the scope of practice of physicians and some paramedics. The text deals concisely with all of the most important advanced skills, including intubation, cricothyroidotomy, chest decompression, catheterization, and rectal examination; but most helpful are the numerous pencil sketches that illustrate the observations and skills being described. I would not want to do a chest decompression for the first time by following the instructions in a book; but if it is a matter of life and death, the pictures in this book will certainly help. This is a good companion volume to Hugh L. Coffees Ditch Medicine (Boulder CO: Paladin Press, 1993), ISBN 0-87364-717-3.
 Kimball Maull, et al., Trauma Update For The EMT (Englewood Cliffs NJ: Brady, 1992), ISBN 0-89303-889-X. Despite its name, this book is not really an update, but rather a review of the major areas of emergency trauma care within the EMT-B scope of practice shock, airway management, thoracic trauma, head injuries, abdominal injuries, and so on. The discussion of each area is relatively brief, and the book lacks the fancy illustrations of the larger trauma textbooks; but each chapter covers the basics in a concise and thorough way.
 Norman E. McSwain, et al., PHTLS Basic and Advanced: Prehospital Trauma Life Support (St. Louis MO: Mosby Lifeline, 1998), ISBN 0-81514-569-1. This book is the text used for the PHTLS certification course given by the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians. This is a street medic course with a scoop-and-go approach to trauma, but much of the text and the course can be relevant to wilderness and survival medicine as well. See John E. Campbell, BTLS: Basic Trauma Life Support, discussed above.
 Susan Budassi Sheehy, Manual of Clinical Trauma Care: The First Hour (St. Louis MO: Mosby, 1994), ISBN 0-8016-7249-X. This is a handbook for trauma nurses, which emphasizes nursing diagnoses and assumes the availability of sophisticated hospital resources. It is primarily an outline rather than a teaching manual. Still, there is much in here that can be a useful supplement to EMT texts, not only in terms of specific techniques but also just to get a wider perspective on trauma care.
 Alexander T. Trott, Wounds and Lacerations: Emergency Care and Closure (St. Louis MO: Mosby-Year Book, Inc., 2nd edition, 1997), ISBN: 0-8151-8853-6. Written for emergency room doctors, this book is the definitive manual on wound cleaning, closing, and dressing, at least in the relatively sterile confines of the ER. The book gives detailed coverage of wound anatomy, wound healing, anesthesia, cleaning, debridement, repair, and closure. There are additional chapters on complex wounds and advanced repair techniques, bite wounds, and wounds at special anatomic sites such as the scalp, ear, lips, and perineum, as well as minor burns, abscesses, tetanus immunity, and wound dressing and bandaging techniques.
 Jim Wardrope, et al., The Management of Wounds and Burns (Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, 1999), ISBN 0-19-262999-9. This is a brief but thorough review of wound and burn management for the new emergency room physician. It covers much of the same ground as Trott, Wounds and Lacerations, discussed above, but in much briefer outline format, and includes a more extended discussion of burns. It has separate sections dealing with special types of wounds puncture wounds, bites, crush wounds, gunshot wounds, and others and separate chapters on hand, facial, and neck and trunk wounds.
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