Going afield? Be prepared!

[Chuck]

Anecdote:

Last week in KY I was driving down a rural dirt road that winds along a now-dry creek through a Wildlife Management Area and private posted property (I have permission to collect on the private property.) It's not unusual to see only one other vehicle on this road all day during summer.

A truck speeding toward me suddenly slammed on the breaks and slid somewhat sideways, almost blocking the road. I pulled up and the driver, looking rather delirious, begged for something to drink. I didn't know if he was some crackhead or whatever, but he clearly wasn't right.

So I gave him a bottle of Powerade, which disappeared. Then a bottle of water. He apologized, said he wasn't a crackhead, but had been hunting & scouting in the hills of the WMA and was overheating (pretty clear- close to heat stroke.) It was 90F/ 32C and humid. By his description of the trail he'd taken, he'd also gained quite some altitude. By the time he made it back to his truck he'd cut his pants down to shorts with a knife and was barely able to navigate.

I had him follow me to an area of the creek that I knew still had a hole of water, maybe 40 liters worth. I jumped down, checked for snakes, then had him go down and splash himself and lay in the water to cool his core temperature. He said it smelled horrible, but it did improve him markedly.

Meanwhile, before he ran into me he'd called a friend who's a cop who was 20 minutes away. My heat-damaged victim explained to me that his buddy had told him to call 911 and they'd send a closer cop and paramedic, but he didn't want to because they'd "want to stick and IV in me." Uh, yeah they would- more signs of inability to think straight. As he wallowed in the gross water I gave him my last bottle of Powerade but only let him sip it, to avoid vomiting and losing all the fluid he had in him. His cop friend showed up with family, and they drove my new friend home.

One thing I can attest to is that when people are very sick they underestimate how bad it is. This makes for poor decision making. Personally I can't say that I've really found a way to logically analyze how bad I was and what the appropriate action was.

Notably, most advise/ info on treating all manner of illnesses & injuries don't mention the root cause: a schedule. In many cases, being on a timed schedule is what gets people into trouble. In this case, the hunter wanted to get to the WMA, do some deep penetration in the hills, and get back to meet his kid at the bus stop. So, in the morning he ate only a can of Spam, and brought no food. He brought one bottle of water, and left the rest at home; he forgot his tick spray at home so was covered with ticks. All because he was in a hurry. He KNEW better, he OWNED the proper stuff, but he was in a hurry.

So anyway, after his friend took him home it was my turn to hit the field...now with no fluids. Ugh.

[vabrou]

Chuck, I personally had several such incidents, most involving getting lost and while lost having medical emergencies caused by my overly stressful situations. Both myself and my wife of 49 years and my 47 year old daughter find it amazing that I am still living after having a lifetime of life-threatening events that I have been involved with and survived. Now some involved multiple weeks of inpatient hospitalizations as a result. I have been hunting since a teenager mostly by myself and I have made hundreds of field trips over the past 60 years in the state of Louisiana. I am 75 now. Yes I usually have a compass, but that doesn't always work because of the treacherous creeks, canals and impenetrable waterways, and alligators. I documented one of these events that happen to me on a large cattle ranch in SW Louisiana back in 2012, and as a result spent over 3 weeks confined to a hospital bed and after that, another 6 weeks of self-administrated daily IV antibiotics at home. Here is the link to that freely available published pdf. Wife says if I had 9 lives, that I have already used 9 of them. I was camping in a tent for 3-4 days among 700-800 mostly bulls. As a result, of this stressful event that one’s normal judgment, common sense and mental clarity does not make an appearance in situations of extreme distress, Attached photo you can see my tent in the upper right corner while on that large cattle ranch.
free access link:
https://www.academia.edu/2588451/I_foug ... oon_forget

Once while duck hunting in a 12 ft long pirogue ( canoe-like boat with paddles) while out in open water in a lake, an alligator surfaced along side of me about 10-20 inches away without warning, it was as big or bigger than my pirogue. This was one of several times I was so scared that the hair on my head stood straight up.