From: "Ron Rogers" <rcrogers6@kennett.net> Subject: [PUP] Medical Kits >reminded me that long-range cruisers need medical kits, perhaps a >relationship with a shoreside medical support team, and travel insurance AND A DENTAL KIT! (ours needs valium if I am going to play "emergency" dentist!) > The best boating kits are devoted to >various degrees of trauma, cuts, dehydration, and inadequate burn supplies. I would suggest you work on a kit that matches your skills. I worked as a paramedic (2 decades ago, but still play what's your diagnosis with the ER docs), so when we (docs and I ) built a medical kit it was different then someone who has different experience. I had great luck with traction splints reduced the calculation problems and reducing the need for pain meds, so I carry one. Most people do not carry them including the boating docs-it is a personal preferences from someone with limited (dangerous?) knowledge (me). p.s. When cruising in the med, a key issue in wound management is the high incidence of vibro, which requires some less common drugs to control. Ciprofloxacin or doxycycline. Something US based doctors were not as familiar with. >What should be addressed is properly packed routine maintenance drugs, hard >copy Rx's, and emergency medicine drugs such as atropine injectable, Why Atropine? (While I was as a paramedic, after reading the EKG, I would use it for cardiac issues, why/how would you use it on a boat?) >There are courses to take. I once took an EMT course in Arizona in my spare >time. Manuals were great. Books like Medicine for Mountaineering and >Wilderness Medicine contain relevant materials for the passagemaker. A side note: I used to suture people in the ER; only in places where scars would not be visible, scalp (as I get older/balder I would rethink allowing paramedics to suture scalps!), bottom of feet, etc. I retried my skills at suturing, and really really failed. So I still have suture kits (I had bought them) but I added some of the other solutions. Stapling and battery power cattery tools. I would recommend both of these! >Georgs, I think that you should consider inviting Dr. Bob Austin to >contribute his world voyaging medical knowledge to this list. YES! >Where and how far offshore can you get a medevac helo from a friendly >country to pick you up? NOT MANY PLACES, I listened to a shore station relay a mayday for hours in the med, before I had to turn the radio off. They were 50 miles from shore and no was available to help. NOTE TO CAPTAINS: It is very tough on your crew to listen to someone else boating need help for hours and not get it! Then when those people talk to others about how alone you are, find crew gets even harder! >BTW, for a cruising couple, do you have a redundant autopilot to steer your >vessel while you attend to your SO, operate the radio, and check your >course? Some thing for short handed cruisers to think about: One person down, one person attending injured, one person attending the boat! This is one of several key reasons we do not have crew sizes of less then 3 are for cruising more then 4 hours offshore, and 4 crew for open water. Finding extra crew is always an issue for us, but it is a safety issue that I consider as important as a backup GPS or switchable fuel filters. But lots of people cruise with just two people and do it successfully!