Survival Medicine

A fractured femur or a gunshot wound to the chest are major injuries that affect your chances of survival in disaster settings, but not all injuries are so extreme. “Minor” injuries can also impact the efficiency of a group member off the grid.  Of these, nailbed injuries are some you’ll commonly see. You can imagine that nailbed injuries will be more common when untrained (and perhaps careless) people perform tasks to which they’re not accustomed. Joe and Amy Alton describe various types of trauma and their treatments. The journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) reports that 33.5% of the population lives below an elevation of 100 meters above sea level. That means that there’s a possibility that you might have to abruptly relocate from a home at sea level to a “bug-out” location in the mountains. Too abruptly, though, and you can get sick. Joe Alton MD discusses acute mountain sickness and what to do to prevent and treat it. Also, the second greatest cause of death from protozoal par