Catastrophic bleed

Forget ABC (Airway, Breathing, Circulation) or DRAB (Danger, Response, Airway, Breathing), 'catastrophic bleed' is the lingo de jour in the first aid world. It indicates an urgent life threatening loss of blood that requires immediate attention. I was flabbergasted at the advancements in medical kit that can be carried now (and there have also been changes to legislation that prevent people dishing out drugs to people on trips). On the market there are powerful clotting agents that can be poured over even an arterial bleed, that should stop it. The agent used to be in powder form and now is more commonly found as a gel after winds have been known to whip the powder into people's eyes, with what you can imagine are gruesome clotting effects.

A group of us who have outrageous travel destinations had some wilderness medicine training over a couple of days. I had similar training by the same guy about ten years ago, and a refresher was much needed. On uninhabited Caribbean islands, Ebola country in Liberia or remote South Sudan I'm not sure having a gushing femoral artery that has been plugged with clotting agent would lessen much panic but it's great to learn some emergency response techniques in case the worst befalls any of us.

This was one of the dummies whose chest was battered in compressions. It's absolutely knackering to keep up chest compressions with the power needed for more than a couple of minutes. In remote situations unfortunately quite critical decisions would have to be made about whether to attempt a resuscitation on someone, with limited support and medical facilities often several hours away.