Urban Survival Day 12 – Set a Bone

Today’s tip is part of the same group as the previous two, Immobilize An Arm Injury and Make A Splint.  Today’s however, focuses more on the bones themselves rather than how to keep them from moving.

12)  Set A Bone

When you break a bone, its always best to seek medical help if available.  But if it isn’t, “setting the bone might just be the only way to save that arm or leg”.  So if you want to know how to set a broken bone, read on.

 

• Assess The Break – Not all breaks need “setting”, but some do.  If the bone has broken through the skin, don’t bother setting it, just immobilize it and keep it from moving to avoid further injury.  The book specifically mentions that “transverse, oblique, or impacted” might need setting.
• Check For Blood Flow – “Press on the skin below the fracture site.  The skin should turn white and then quickly return to pink”.  If you feel like your skin is numb or tingling, or it appears pale or blue, you’ve probably lost circulation.  In order to restore blood flow you need to set the bone.
• Put It In Place – Carefully pull both side of the break in opposite directions.  This should realign the bone.  Do not try to push the bone into place or you could end up causing more harm than good.

 

Just talking about this kinda makes my stomach uneasy.  My dad was in a motorcycle accident back in 09′ if I remember correctly.  I was in the hospital when the surgeon came in to examine his leg fracture.  It was awful.  I really don’t know that I would have the strength or willpower to set a bone in real life. Not unless it was a life or death situation.

Have you ever set a bone?  Set your friend’s bone?  Or are you in medical school and setting bones is something you do in your sleep?  Let me know in the comments.

The information contained in this post is a combination of my own opinion and information provided in the book Urban Survival Guide by Rich Johnson.  This is not intended to be used for medical instruction.  If you have an injury and are able, please refer to your doctor before conducting anything like this.  And as always, subscribe so you don’t miss the remaining tips!

Urban Survival Day 11 – Make A Splint

Today’s tip goes hand in hand with yesterday’s tip, Immobilize An Arm Injury.  In the same way that breaking or injuring an arm is highly probably during a disaster type situation, so is the possibility of a leg injury.  In fact, since every step we take is with one of our legs, its probably more likely to encounter a leg injury.

11)  Make A Splint

In a survival type situation, you wont have the luxury of laying around while your leg heals.  In fact, you’ll probably be trying to get somewhere safe, and “staying still isn’t an option”.  So to temporarily get you up and going, back to civilization, you’re going to need a splint.  According to the book, your splint could be made of “a sleeping pad, cardboard, or other flexible material”.  Here’s what you need to do:

1. Stop any bleeding with direct pressure.
2. Check for a pulse below the fracture and look at the skin – if it’s pale, circulation may be cut off and you may need to set the bone.
3. Slide the unfolded splint material beneath the limb and pad it for comfort and stability.
4. Fold the splint around the leg; securing it with elastic, gauze, or other material.  The splint should be tight enough to keep the bone from shifting, but it should not impair circulation.  If the break involves a joint, secure the splint both above and below it for extra stability.

I believe this is what they’re going for

I honestly don’t think I would do a very good job of this based on these instructions alone.  My legs take a lot of pressure as I walk and I just don’t know that I could secure cardboard around my leg well enough to “keep the bone from shifting”.  Has anyone ever used something like this and did it work at all?

And as always, if you want to buy this book, look for “Outdoor Survival Guide” by Rich Johnson at your favorite book store.  I am making no money by advertising for this; I’m just giving the writer his credit since I’m pretty much taking stuff right out of the book.

Urban Survival Day 10 – Immobilize an Arm Injury

We’ve all seen someone with a broken arm.  I remember signing casts back in elementary and middle school.  Seemed like every year at least one person had a broken arm.  Why would that change during a disaster or apocalypse type scenario?

10)  Immobilize an Arm Injury

“If you’ve injured an arm (with a fracture, a sever sprain, or an especially gnarly cut), you’ll need to immobilize it for a while”.  The book outlines the steps we need to take in order to do this properly:

1)  Start with a square cloth about 3′ x 3′ and lay it out flat.  Fold it from corner to corner so you are left with a triangle.

2)  Place the injured arm inside the fold and bring the ends up with one end on each side of the neck.  Angle the forearm up slightly.

3)  Tie the corners in a knot behind your neck.

4)  Wrap a belt or some other kind of strap around the chest, above the forearm, avoiding the injured area if possible.  Tie or lock the strap in place tightly enough to keep the arm from moving, but not so tightly that it cuts off circulation.

I’ve never needed this skill, and I hope I never do.  But knowing it can’t really hurt.  And I feel a little bit better knowing that if I was stranded and alone with a broken or injured arm, I could at least do something about it.

Let me hear your stories.  Anyone ever broke an arm or know someone who has, while out doing stuff?  How’d you handle it?  Let me know in the comments below.  And be sure to check out this book, Urban Survival Guide, at your favorite book store.  There’s still a lot more interesting tips coming up, so make sure you keep checking back!

Urban Survival Day 9 – Deal With Blood Loss

Today’s tip involves a lot of talk about blood.  Seriously, this tip covers two pages in the book.  So there will be some slightly graphic discussion about blood.  If you’re squeamish about blood, you may not want to read on, but its only words.  There are no pictures.  I did my best to keep it on a level that anyone would be comfortable with.

9)  Deal With Blood Loss

“Your tender human flesh doesn’t stand a chance against a misdirected axe or an errant blade, and that doesn’t even begin to take into account accidents involving sharp rocks, or a skin-shredding tumble on a trail”.  Dealing with blood loss is something that everyone will have to live with at some point if they’re in a survival situation.  I mean, how many times have you cut yourself in the kitchen alone?  Add in the stress and panic of a disaster and you’re just asking for trouble.

The first type of blood loss is called “ooze“.  This is a basic scrape or abrasion that opens capillaries.  The blood loss is very minimal and you aren’t at risk from that directly.  With this type of injury your biggest danger is infection.  To deal with it the book recommends that you:

• Disinfect the wound
• Use moderate pressure to stop the bleeding
• Keep the wound moist with aloe vera or antibiotic ointment until it has healed
• Cover it with a semipermeable dressing
• Change the dressing daily and inspect the wound for infection, which might require professional treatment

 

The  second type of blood loss is deemed “spurt” by the book.  This type of blood loss is the result of “arterial bleeding” and it can be extremely dangerous.  Your main goal here should be to stop the blood loss as quickly as possible.  Here’s what you should do:

• Elevate the injury above the heart
• Aggressively apply pressure
• If a wound on a limb wont stop bleeding, tie a tourniquet above the wound and tighten it until the blood stops flowing.  But be warned that the use of a tourniquet can lead to the necessity for amputation.  Use only when you must.
• Call 911 or transport the victim to an available medical facility immediately

 

Our third type of blood loss is called “flow“.  This type of blood loss is the result of an open vein and is described as “dark red blood [gushing] steadily”.  Again the priority is on stopping the blood loss.  Take the following steps:

• Elevate the injury above the heart
• Use tweezers to remove any debris that is lodged in the cut
• Disinfect the wound
• Apply direct pressure to the injury.  You can apply pressure with bare hands at first, but then search for something to serve as a direct-pressure pad.
• After the bleeding stops, use tape or cloth strips to secure the dressing over the wound

 

The fourth and last type of blood loss is much harder to detect, but just as serious as the others.  This type of blood loss is “internal” bleeding.  This most often occurs during car crashes, or when a person is hit near an organ.  The steps you should take are below:

• Monitor for hypovolemia (a state in which blood levels are drastically reduced).  Shock, pallor, rapid breathing, confusion, and lack of urine are all signs.
• Incline the victim toward the injured side.  This constrains the blood flow to the damaged area, and keeps the good side up and running.
• Stabilize the victim, treat for shock, and call 911 or transport the victim to a medical facility immediately.

 

Ok, that’s all the blood we’re going to discuss today I promise.  I think this is definitely some useful information.  I honestly don’t think I would’ve been able to identify types of bleeding and causes until reading today’s tip.  Its something everyone should know, especially anyone interested in preparing for disasters.

Hopefully you learned something that you’ll hopefully never need.  Whenever possible however, seek medical help for injuries that result in blood loss.  We can do many things to slow the blood, stop it, and disinfect it, but none of that comes close to what our medical professionals can do.

And as always, here’s my shout out to Rich Johnson and his book Urban Survival Guide from which these tips are coming from.  If you like this kind of stuff and want to have all of these tips at hand whenever you want, go on out and buy a copy.  But if you’re not a spender, just subscribe and hang out with me for the remaining 102 tips!

Urban Survival Day 5 – Stop Bleeding

No more bug out bags!  Its an exciting thing, I know.  Today’s step focuses on stopping blood loss.  Now you’ll be happy you packed those bug out bags with first aid kits.

5)  Stop Bleeding

“It’s pressure that stops bleeding”.  If you don’t take appropriate measures when attempting to stop blood loss, you could end up losing a lot of blood.  Here’s the four steps you should take to stop an injury from bleeding.

1. Find the source and deal with the worst injury first.
2. Use a compress.  Cover the wound with a sterile compress and apply pressure.
3. Stack bandages as they soak through until the bleeding has stopped.
4. Remove the compress and clean with water.

 

It looks easy in words, and everything makes sense, but if you’ve ever had to deal with a major cut you know its sometimes a difficult task.  I personally suffer with really bad nose bleeds pretty frequently.  I’ve developed ways to stop the bleeding a lot faster than I used to, but it’s still not easy.  Knowing proper ways to treat an injury certainly speeds up the healing.

Have you ever needed to use the advice above?  I’m lucky enough that I’ve only ever had one major accident (the one that messed up my nose to begin with) to deal with.  But if something was to ever happen, I’m as ready as I can be.

If you want to buy the book, head over HERE.  Might be good to have a copy on hand one day.  Never know when you’ll need it and you don’t want to be there going, “what was I supposed to do to stay alive in this situation??”

Our next tip is how to disinfect a wound.  Make sure you don’t miss that one tomorrow, otherwise you’ll just end up with a cut that stopped bleeding only to become infected later.  We don’t want that to happen!  Subscribe so you’re not left wondering!