What to carry medical wise in a SAR

[emt6207]

I volunteer for a search and rescue team nearby, and we we're involved in the big illinois state search this last weekend(can't really say anymore then that about the search itself).

But on this search I did about 10 miles of walking through brush/bryers/dense stuff with the occasional 50 degree 100 ft down ravine slope to go up and down and along side of etc.

Being one of the members on my team with emt-b I carried a bunch of extra medical gear in my pack as opposed to the simple bandaids and bug spray most people carried. Just incase someone tripped or lost their footing or whatever, maybe broke their ankle or who knows what, just so I could be ready. The area where we searched the response time from moment of call out to the moment an ALS service could get down to where we were might have easily been 20+ minutes depending on how far in we were.

But that in addition to standard sar gear was a 25lb pack, which after the first 4 hrs wasn't too bad but the 2nd 4 hours, especially climbing up and down the ravine was vicious. Too the point I need to lighten the pack because I had to have someone else carry it on the way out. Which got me thinking and to the point of this topic:

For the above scenario, where your the only medic on you'r team, going into heavy brush and stuff far enough in where response time is lengthy and you don't have an atv handy, what would you carry as a basic service in your medic pack to support your team of 6-8?

 

[NomadicMedic]

I was an EMT B with a SAR team for a bit and I didn't carry much more than some 4x4s, tape, a SAM splint and a pocket mask.

While I'm not a big proponent of the WEMT program, this is an instance where I think it comes in handy. If you're bushwacking, you should know how to improvise splints and such out of what you have and what you can find around you.

I will say that the majority of "calls" as an EMT-B with SAR were for simple ankle/leg injuries, which required only splinting or the rare medical emergency, like an MI or abdominal pain, which required a fly out.

Good luck.

 

[Outbac1]

Everyone should be carring their own FA kit to support themselves. There is a list of search minimum equipment on the NASAR site.

http://www.nasar.org/page/2/Education

Not everyone subscribes to this as some teams do things a bit differently. Our team for ex. do not require any rope, carabiners etc. If the terrain is that steep we will call a high angle rescue team. Most of the rest of the list is reasonable. You can taylor it to fit your needs and search conditions/seasons etc.
A personal FA kit need not be large. If everyone has one you suddenly have a lot of stuff if you need it, and will probably still have stuff left over.
I think all I carry is the following:
4- 4x4
2 - telfa pad
1 - abdo pad
1 - tape
1-2 cling guaze
1 triangle bandage
a few alcohol/iodine wipes
bandaids
Small Polysporin or similar
2 pr gloves
1 zip bag to put the garbage in
Personal meds -ibuprophen etc.

A 25 lb pack is probably too much. Pack weight should be no more than 10% of your body weight. And you should be in good enough shape to carry it 8-12 hrs. You need to get in better shape, (don't we all), lose some kit, get lighter kit or a combination of all 3.
You should probably talk to your team trainers and team leaders to get their thoughts on what to carry.
Oh I've been in ground search and rescue for 15 years and am a NASAR qualified search manager. Searching is what got me started down the Paramedic path in the first place.

 

[Mountain Res-Q]

I you would like I can send you by e-mail the "How to Pack for SAR" section of my training manual. Just PM me your e-mail and I will send that to ya. Ask lights&sirens, its good stuff.

Like Outback, I have been doing this for some time, both in the field and as Search Management. As was said, you probably need to work on conditioning; 25 lbs for a pack is at the upper limit of what our members are allowed to carry as a Blitz (Day) Pack, and that includes tech gear, medical, clothing, etc.

In the manual mentioned above, I included several pearls of wisdom that have come my way. I don't think I can quote them all in my sleep-deprived state, but a favorite of mine is: Always question perceived needs against your usefulness as a team participant.

It happens to everyone in SAR. We pack too much and not the right things. After a while we figure it out. But after XX years, you will still need to make changes. I can tell you that my pack has looked 100% different every year. As Training Officer I would get probies constantly trying to ask the question, "what should I carry", and while I can give them a list of some required stuff and a few suggestions, the fact is that trial, error, and hard learned lessons are the best teachers.

Medically, I can say that I am a minimalist. My greatest asset is what is between my ears. Story: The first Paramedics in my county came from SAR; sent by the Sheriff to get their medic. Their first medical kit for SAR was an 82 lb pack with everything they could ever need. They quickly learned that "urban" don't fly at 10,000 feet, 30 miles away from a road, in a blizzard. Now, the same Medic who built that pack is an FACEP with 40 years as a Medic, Expedition Doctor (Denali, Everest, etc.), and YOSAR Doctor and he has converted me to his wilderness medical mindset. His medical kit is 4x4, some IBU, and MS. I carry a little more, but not much. There are a lot of great devices for wilderness SAR and a lot of toys that the average street EMT thinks they need, but most of the time there is another way, a way that doesn't involve carrying more weight and taking up precious space in my pack.

 

[emt6207]

Thanks for all the responses, yeah better shape starts about this time of the year, I do professional airsoft usually on the weekends and my rig altogether is about 20lbs, and after the first few weekends I'm used to it, but there's also a lot more breaks where as SAR is not so much.

Going to lighten the load a bit, and carry some common sense things instead of trying to be prepared for everything.

Again thanks for the tips and responses!

 

[zmedic]

I spent about 5 years on SAR, now doing some other emergency medical stuff. The way we ran it on our team was we had three kinds of medical kits. The first was what everyone carried. Basically some gloves and 4x4s. The second kind was a bit bigger, it was about 10lbs, had SAM splint, oral airways, roller gauze, big trauma dressing etc. The third kit was the mondo 40lb pack with IV supplies, meds, BVM, extra everything.

The way we used it if our role was moving light we'd just have our personal gear. If it was to support a search dog handler and going on reasonable conditions we'd bring the medium pack. The big one pretty much stayed in the truck, but were there in case we had to grab something out of it to carry in, or it may get thrown in the stretcher that had a wheel on it and get brought to a confirmed location when we needed a lot of medical gear (I think the one time that it was brought in was to a plane crash, a hasty team went in fast, most of the team went in with bigger packs, sleeping bags etc, and a slow team brought the litter with the rope, evac gear, med bag.)

I agree with what everyone else is saying, but I think everyone needs to think about the situations that your team responds to. If you are going to be doing a lot of walking and searching I agree go super light. But in some situations it makes sense to carry more stuff. The second team I worked with was in a area with lots of outdoor sports, and most of the calls were for injuries or fallen climbers. They were usually in a known location, near a trail, usually within 2 miles of the trailhead. In those situations it made sense to bring a bunch of medical gear. Sure we could have brought nothing and improvised everything. But when your patient is 1 mile up the trail with a bad tib-fib fracture, I think it is worth bringing IV supplies, giving pain control, taking a blood pressure.

 

[EMTBell]

not too light now

Yeah your pack is heavy, but if you're going to be the EMT for the team you should have some BLS gear. Trust me, wouldn't you know it the one time I went out without my medical gear my buddy coded and aspirated, real worst case scenario. So I would keep it light with:
Oral Airway Kit
Pocket Mask (based on the experience I just mentioned I also keep something for manual suction like a turkey baster or syringe)
Abd pad
Some bandaids and alcohol prep
2 Pairs of gloves
2 Triangular Bandages
1 Ace bandage

As it was mentioned above, it is stressed in WEMT curricula to improvise splinting material, so do your best with what you have!