First Aids for Hunters
Hunting is a wonderful sport, but on a natural environment full of thorns and cliffs is not hard to have an accident, furthermore, the use of guns, knives and stands add an extra dose of risk to all hunting activities.
With the above in mind ins not hard to figure out that prevention plays a key role to keep as low as possible accidents and injuries among hunters, however even with the best safety techniques, injuries occur time to time, especially falls and minor cuts requiring attention on the field.
That's why all hunters must be aware about to handle this type of medical problems because in many cases they are alone on remote areas and the only medical help available is that provided by fellow hunters.
That's why it's always recommend to hunt in groups instead of alone. A lonely hunter will have less survival chance in case of an accident that one hunting with a group, or at least a partner.
And when things go wrong and someone got wounded, all the efforts must be focused on providing first aids, and evacuate the injured one if necessary.
On the field there will not be too many options for medical attention, thus only minor situations will be handled.
Minor cuts, lacerations or abrasions must be profusely cleaned with water, disinfected using proper antiseptics and covered with sterile gauze.
If required and there's proper trained personnel available on the field even some stitches might be applied if required, however it's highly recommended to seek medical advise as soon as possible when deep injuries required stitches are seen.
In those cases with active hemorrhage, digital compression or compressive bandages should be used, if it's not possible to stop bleeding, evacuation is required.
For those suffering of ankle sprains the use of analgesics and immobilization is mandatory. If a fracture is suspected, the patient must be evacuated.
Sometimes is hard to know if an injured people requires medical attention or not. As a general rule, if it's possible to solve the problem at home, it will be possible to solve it on the field too; nevertheless, in case of doubts request a medical evacuation immediately.
On life threatening situations there's not too much to do on the field other than providing immobilization, analgesia and moving the injured one towards a safe place until medical help arrives.
Fortunately major injuries as high altitude falls and firearms wounds are not so frequent. In such cases the victim always will need specialized medical attention, thus the best choice is to call an emergency service for an evacuation as soon as possible because on such cases time does matters.
