Thread: NZ Alpine Hunter :Injury, First Aid training & gear survey (research)

Originally Posted by Bagheera

Gidday Dr M
Nice to have you here and an interesting topic
These Surveys could be a pilot but there are too few Q to get worthwhile info.
Other relevant factors are:
Professional training & experience
Death or injury of friends
Preventive and Risk management strategies eg alpine skills course, use of helmet Ice axe + crampon
Awareness of dangers other than falls eg rock fall, river, avalanche, hypothermia

What is a Pelvic binder?
Who uses haemostat outside the military ?
are these questions to identify survivalist and militia member respondents?

There is a void with the mountain Safety Council out of action. But you need a clearer focus and more detail. These preliminary surveys wouldn't have enough meat to go in NZ Hunter or Wilderness. FMC bulletin runs a Back country accidents column where good data could be published.

Good Morning Bagheera and thank you for your kind welcoming words.

I totally agree with you, the 10 questions in each survey are only just scratching the surface of the fact finding I would like to carry out.
However, I have learned from a previous outdoor industry engagement survey that short, quick and simple is the best way to capture big numbers or respondents. The people who have more of an interest will then contacted via their submitted emails, either for more data collection or just with the result of the survey if that is what they have requested.

It is sad and interesting that you have mentioned death of friends, since this is a subject which I have spent a lot of time on and I have constructed a training module called "Death training for outdoor instructors: care of the dead and dying patient, their rescuers and survivors" This is not part of a NZQA standards unit and as yet I have not found a training provider who is willing to teach it. Within the Adventure Activities Operators sector in NZ death is still very much a taboo subject, both because of commercial interest (bad for business) and due to the deep ingrained PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) within the senior echelons of the peak bodies of outdoor industry.

This module came about form the work I presented at the Paramedicine Australasia International Conference in 2016 : Dying for adventure:How do NZ outdoor instructors manage death of Adventure Activities participants ?"

If you are interested you can find the survey, the presentation and the research paper on my website

https://drmwildernessemc.wordpress.com/


A pelvic binder/ pelvic sling/ pelvic wrap can be considered a "tourniquet" to stop the often fatal bleeding which occurs within a fractured pelvis caused by a fall the height twice the persons body length, i.e. roughly above 3 metres.
It is one of the very few interventions (apart from preventing hypothermia) which can actually save a life of an injured casualty by an "in situ " rescuer ( i.e. a rescuer who is there when it happens rather than responds to a distress call and has advanced expertise and equipment)

In penetrating injuries haemostatic agents and tourniquets (effective ones, correctly deployed) save lives. They are now featured in the NZ Resuscitation Council guidelines for use by first aiders in life threatening bleeding.The only barrier to being used by recreational or commercial hunters should possibly be cost, not lack of awareness or not having practiced simulated situations (with cheaper substitutes) of what it is like to pack a deep wound.

Often "preppers" and Tactical Combat Care defence force personnel are the most useful "in situ" responders to have with you in an emergency situation. It is however important to know what actions are suitable in a civilian peacetime casualty and this may not be directly extrapolated from armed combat, but this is a whole other conversation, one which I would be more than happy to have.

Early on in my data collection for the project mentioned above I was in contact with Johnny Mulherron of FMC Back country accident and he was very supportive of my work.
It is still very early days on the Alpine Hunter Injury, First Aid training and gear research.
I never have preconceived ideas of what the results or outcomes might be, I like my research projects to develop organically.

My other projects to date is ICAR checklist Avalanche patient resuscitation workshop I ran with Hilary from Horizons at the Southern Hemisphere Alpine conference in Christchurch earlier this year and I am currently collaborating with LandSAR, NZPolice and Civil Defence developing the NZ National Accidental Hypothermia Strategy.
I also recently collaborated with NZRA on a webinar/podcast on PTSD and critical incident stress prevention, recognition and management.
I am not telling you these things in order to blow my own trumpet, that is not my style, but more as an introduction to my interests and wider grasp of outdoor specific concepts.

You could check my twitter account if you would like t see more of my work I am DrM@wildernessEMC.
That account also has some rare disease and other emergency care stuff on it.

Am I correct in thinking that you might be one of the hunters wiling to collaborate with further fact finding in the future, Bagheera?
It would be great if that were the case.

Kind regards,
Malin