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We encourage you to continue educational pursuits in wilderness medical training. We are always receptive to your feedback, as it’s integral to our progress. If you have suggestions on how we can improve our services to you, please contact us.

“Hi there. Just wanted thank Wilderness Medical Associates (especially Phil, Robin, and Stephen) for their great instruction in last January’s Wilderness First Responder course at the University of Alabama.

This summer, I utilized my skills in the backcountry to treat many routine issues, and some minor emergencies. The training was very useful, but I didn’t really appreciate how valuable the course really was until Friday of last week, when I drove up to the scene of a grisly motorcycle wreck, only seconds after the crash. I first secured the scene, and made sure that 911 was dispatched for the motorcyclist who had presumably lost control of his bike, and crashed into a tree on a winding back road.

After identifying myself as a wilderness first responder, I began stabilizing the semi-conscious man’s cervical spine with in-line stabilization while I completed the initial assessment, which yielded findings of a rigid abdomen, presumably shattered pelvis, and fractures to both legs. In addition to complaining of intense pain, the patient also was devoid of sensation his legs, making tedious stabilization of the spine even more vital. I continued to hold stabilization and kept other bystander “rescuers” from moving the patient during the ten minute response times for local fire/rescue.

Once EMS arrived on scene, I presented my initial assessment to paramedics, and then assisted in log rolling the patient onto a backboard. Air Care Cincinnati was called to the scene and the man was flown by medical helicopter to the local trauma center for emergency surgery.

Last I have heard, he survived the surgery to repair damages to his internal organs and pelvis, and is beginning to regain feeling in his legs. Thanks to the realistic simulations, and thoughtful instruction I knew exactly what to do, and was able to make a positive impact. As a high school student, I surprised all of the adult bystanders on scene by taking control of the situation, and acting immediately to assist the injured man. Thank you!”

Click here for a list of upcoming Wilderness First Responder courses in your area.

Please consider helping AORE make a difference by reviewing this document if you have ever sponsored a WFR course, attended at WFR course, or instructed a WFR course. Does this document include the topics that you want your staff to know? As a participants of a Wilderness First Responder course, is this training enough to prepare you for backcountry medical emergencies? Are the elective topics sufficient? Please be clear, professional, and thorough.

Click here for the Wilderness First Responder Scope of Practice.

Please send your comments to Tim Mertz (mertzt@uwstout.edu). Comments received will be consolidated and then presented to the wilderness medical providers for consideration in the final document.

A woman slipped and fell on the ice three feet in front of me. While she was lying on the ground in great pain she reported that she was recovering from a hip replacement. I had my hip replaced a couple of months ago and thus knew she was at risk for a femur fracture. She said it felt like her femur broke. I immediately rushed into action using my WFR skills by having someone dial 911 (we were in front of a drug store, one building over from the Cleveland Clinic where I had just had an MRI on my hip). I also immediately used my WFR skills by protecting the woman from would-be rescuers. The ambulance arrived in under 3 minutes, and she was transported the one block to the ER at the Cleveland Clinic. Turns out she did have a femoral neck fracture. So, thanks for the wonderful training, and know that if we had been more than 2 hours from a hospital I would have done more than call 911. Phil and Robyn’s lesson that many times the best thing you can do is “protect the patient from other rescuers” was very pertinent in this case b/c two would be rescuers first reaction was to try to have her stand up and “walk it off”. Not a good idea with a femur fracture…. Also, their constant reminders of the difference between street reaction (e.g., call 911) and field reaction immediately came to mind.

“I thought that I would share with you an event from this past weekend in which I was able to use my WFR training.  While Deanna and I were climbing a 5.7 route on Cathedral Peak in Tuolumne Meadows, a climber above us suddenly screamed out in pain.  He felt said pain while trying to make a mantle move onto a ledge.  He immediately asked me for help; knowing the scene was safe, I climbed up to him, got him to a safe place on the ledge and helped him sit down.  I told him that I’m a [Wilderness First Responder] and asked if he wanted me to take a look at what might be going on with his shoulder.  During my bilateral eval, I determined that his shoulder was likely dislocated.  Since it was an indirect injury of the joint, I told him that I could reduce it, and explained to him the process and pain relief benefit.  He asked me to do it, so I helped him to a lying down position (thankfully it was a big ledge) and started the reduction process. It only took two minutes or so to reduce the injury, and as expected, he felt immediate relief from the pain. I told him that I wanted to sling and swathe the arm, and then haul him the remainder of the way to the top.  (Thankfully I was only looking at 40 feet or so, which with a 5:1 mechanical advantage pulley system isn’t all that terrible.)  He didn’t want to be rescued any more than necessary, so he said he was going to try to climb the remainder by himself.  I told him that my offer stood if he changed his mind.  He was able to make it the remainder of the climb (a 5.6 crack).

I’ve thought a lot about this situation since then only to realize how things would have been very different had Deanna and I not taken the WFR course.  Not only did that course give us the specific tools to deal with such emergencies, but I have never felt more competent to provide medical care in wilderness context or otherwise. (And I didn’t even suffer any ASR, sympathetic or otherwise! {smile})  That said, I want to thank you once again for the great training.  I’m sure you’ve heard more than enough such stories, but I thought that you might like to hear another.  I hope this finds you well.”

This story was also featured in the August 2009 issue of Journal of Mountaineering on page 18.

Shortly after my WFR course with Wilderness Medical Associates, I got a call on my radio at our summer camp that a golf cart had just flipped going backwards down a hill.  The scene was exactly like the ones we covered in our course.  There were people running around with ASR, two people lying on the ground with (minor) head injuries (they were both fine, stitches but nothing else).

The scenarios in the course were amazingly accurate, and very helpful.  It took a second to realize who needed the most help, but once all of the knowledge kicked in I handled the situation as well as I could have. Although we are just on the edge of wilderness (a summer camp 15 miles from a hospital, but rather remote) the training was perfect.

I just needed to share a beautiful WFR story.  In the morning of day 4, my student Mike came in and told me we saved his mother’s life. He started with ”Ann you always say, saving a life one drill at time.”

Mike is in his mid 50′s and called his folks the night before as his mom was scheduled for minor heart surgery.  His dad told him, “your mother fell and hit her head, she’s got a pretty good goose egg.”

Having just learned about TBI/ Increasing ICP, Mike told his dad what to watch for.  Sure enough,  within two hours, she developed a severe headache and vomiting.  His dad would have just let her go to sleep without monitoring her.  She was air lifted out, had neurosurgery, and is doing fine so far.

You just never know when you can impact a student.  As tired as I may get while teaching, this is why I teach for Wilderness Medical Associates.

Ann Maureen Dunphy
WMA Lead Instructor

At work for a half hour. Monday morning. Phone rings, client with severe drug addictions and Borderline Personality Disorder calls. She wants to talk about not taking methadone in four days. She is speaking softly. She regularly comes on and off opiates, and while the detox is always serious, I now knew to focus on the PAS to determine what was actually life-threatening. I began asking her about her breathing which was fine, and there were no other issues for immediate death, but I did go to ins and outs, which I may not have done before the WAFA training. She reported that she hadn’t eaten since last Tuesday and vomited when she did, didn’t know when her last bowel was, hadn’t peed in at least 24 hours and didn’t remember drinking anything since some juice last night. (I later learned she was drinking alcohol up until Sunday). The flags went up for where the real problems were and I instructed her to get to the ER. She was treated for severe dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. Aside from being helpful, what I was struck by was my immediate confidence in how to handle and assess the situation. While not the most dramatic first aid story, this client can be extremely difficult to know what to do with and at least in this case I knew.

Have you had to use your skills since your course?

We wanted to make our new site easier to navigate, chock full of wilderness medical information, and featuring real people in videos. So we asked a recent group of WMA course graduates and this is what some said:

“Hey! Nice job with the web site. I like the eye catching header, the link to courses near me and the YouTube video. I keep describing to people how the course simulated real life situations and helped desensitize me to serious injuries, especially disfigurement, blood and guts (and Cabot’s projective vomiting!). It is great to have the YouTube clip to have my peers view and gain a better understanding of how I was trained.”

“New site looks great! I really like the Q & A and blog sections. Keep up the good work!”

“Like to new website, it was easy to navigate. I enjoyed the questions and answer part with Dr. Johnson the most.”

“The look and feel is really good. I like the Find a Course feature.”

Thanks to all the recent WMA grads who gave us such useful feedback.
Anne Rugg
General Manager

WMA has these new t-shirts that are given out to everybody on a WMA course (with the exception of a WFA course), featuring a da Vinci-inspired design of the Vitruvian Man. We are asking students, instructors, and like-minded individuals to send in their pictures to webmaster@wildmed.com. We’d like to know where the picture was shot, and we will feature your post right here on our blog! Don’t forget to send us a story to attach to your submission!

Check back to see where the man has been traveling to!