Last Friday night we were camped at Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley. We had arrived in late afternoon and all of the nearby designated remote campsites were taken and we did not have time to find a spot in the back country. So we pulled into the RV/campground area and grabbed a spot, cooked dinner and snuggled into the tent.
With both kids in the tent I never really fall completely asleep, sort of a one eye open protective instinct I guess. It must have been about 2am when I had a dream. The LOUD squawking sound distinctive only to tires skidding sideways on pavement followed by a series of rumbling thumps and crashes accented with some broken glass and then complete silence.
Not a dream after all! I sat straight up in the tent looked over at my wife Amy, who had been startled awake by my movement and said "there's been an accident, it sounded like a rollover!"
I put on my boots, unfortunately forgetting my pants but had boxers on, while Amy found and handed me the flashlight. I grabbed the medical bag from the truck and headed towards the yellow glow of a flashing turn signal about 200 yards away.
The vehicle, a small SUV, had skidded and rolled coming to rest about 30 feet off the road on its passenger side with the roof towards the paved road. The passenger had climbed out of the vehicle and was laying on the ground, the driver was out walking round the vehicle and collecting their posessions. The campground security had called the on-duty EMT and there were two other people on site to help.
I received my WFR certification a couple of months ago and since the class I have not had much exposure to using it. Needless to say this situation was a bit surreal. The EMT was said to be about 10 minutes out so I jumped in. I asked the other two people to help, one to hold the light and the other to stabilize the head of the passenger who was laying on the ground. I checked ABC and did a blood sweep while asking the passenger lots of questions to measure his LOR.
By the time I had located his pulse the EMT arrived. I told the EMT what I had gathered up to this point, he asked my level of training, I asked if he could use my help, he said yes.... wow, this is exactly what my WFR instructors said would happen. We grabbed a few bags out of the EMT truck and went back to the passenger. The EMT said we needed to put a collar on him, told me where to find the trauma sheers and asked me to make room for the collar. So there I was, no questions, cutting off this guys nice jacket and vest. I was impressed how trauma shears will go through anything with little effort.
With the collar on and another EMT and ambulance now on scene we strapped the passenger onto a backboard, loaded him into the ambulance and the two professionals continued to do their fine work. They drove off about a mile into the desert and thirty minutes later a helicopter arrived to take the passenger to a hospital in Las Vegas. I can only imagine if this rollover had happened anywhere else in Death Valley, these guys lucked out and had people there to help within minutes.
I learned a few things:
- Stop and take the time to put your pants on.
- I give a pretty lame verbal SOAP report.
- Keep a watch or timer in your medical kit, along with a headlamp.
- EMTs are cool.
- It is well worth the time to re-read your training materials on a regular basis, I jumped right back into my books when we got home.
Brian
With both kids in the tent I never really fall completely asleep, sort of a one eye open protective instinct I guess. It must have been about 2am when I had a dream. The LOUD squawking sound distinctive only to tires skidding sideways on pavement followed by a series of rumbling thumps and crashes accented with some broken glass and then complete silence.
Not a dream after all! I sat straight up in the tent looked over at my wife Amy, who had been startled awake by my movement and said "there's been an accident, it sounded like a rollover!"
I put on my boots, unfortunately forgetting my pants but had boxers on, while Amy found and handed me the flashlight. I grabbed the medical bag from the truck and headed towards the yellow glow of a flashing turn signal about 200 yards away.
The vehicle, a small SUV, had skidded and rolled coming to rest about 30 feet off the road on its passenger side with the roof towards the paved road. The passenger had climbed out of the vehicle and was laying on the ground, the driver was out walking round the vehicle and collecting their posessions. The campground security had called the on-duty EMT and there were two other people on site to help.
I received my WFR certification a couple of months ago and since the class I have not had much exposure to using it. Needless to say this situation was a bit surreal. The EMT was said to be about 10 minutes out so I jumped in. I asked the other two people to help, one to hold the light and the other to stabilize the head of the passenger who was laying on the ground. I checked ABC and did a blood sweep while asking the passenger lots of questions to measure his LOR.
By the time I had located his pulse the EMT arrived. I told the EMT what I had gathered up to this point, he asked my level of training, I asked if he could use my help, he said yes.... wow, this is exactly what my WFR instructors said would happen. We grabbed a few bags out of the EMT truck and went back to the passenger. The EMT said we needed to put a collar on him, told me where to find the trauma sheers and asked me to make room for the collar. So there I was, no questions, cutting off this guys nice jacket and vest. I was impressed how trauma shears will go through anything with little effort.
With the collar on and another EMT and ambulance now on scene we strapped the passenger onto a backboard, loaded him into the ambulance and the two professionals continued to do their fine work. They drove off about a mile into the desert and thirty minutes later a helicopter arrived to take the passenger to a hospital in Las Vegas. I can only imagine if this rollover had happened anywhere else in Death Valley, these guys lucked out and had people there to help within minutes.
I learned a few things:
- Stop and take the time to put your pants on.
- I give a pretty lame verbal SOAP report.
- Keep a watch or timer in your medical kit, along with a headlamp.
- EMTs are cool.
- It is well worth the time to re-read your training materials on a regular basis, I jumped right back into my books when we got home.
Brian
And gloves (I always double glove since there will be gunk & my hands get sweaty which make putting on fresh gloves tough), and a headlamp and whatever else I can think of.
