Survival Medicine

The environment plays a large role in your success as medic in survival settings. If you don’t take weather conditions and other factors into account, you have made the environment your enemy, and it’s a formidable one. One major issue is cold-related illness, otherwise known as hypothermia. Normally, the body core ranges from 97.5 to 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit (36.5-37.5 degrees Celsius) when taken orally or rectally. Rectal temps tend to be slightly higher than oral, and oral temps slightly higher than skin readings, such as those taken in the armpit. Hypothermia begins when the body core drops below 95 degrees. Dr. Joe Alton discusses what to do when the family medic is faced with someone struck by cold exposure. Also, Nurse Amy Alton begins a series on nursing care off the grid. While not as sensational as emergency trauma care, the daily maintenance of the bedridden group member is so important that you're bound to lose people if you don't know how to properly care for them all the way to recovery. Amy di