Survive Infinite Dangers: The Family Survival Guide of 21st Century Dangers (27 page)

Having drawn a mental picture of the optimum scenario now let’s get practical. You brought up the subject at a few parties only to be blown off with a laugh and a “this guy is paranoid” look. Don’t push it as all you’ll do is cause the person to remember what house to go when disaster strikes. Hopefully you brought at least two other families into your group, families who are equipped to be an asset and not a liability with good health, eager to work hard, follow or give commands and be a real asset to your group. If you spread out your safe area so that each family on your block remains in their home set up communications in advance. Refer to the chapter on communications. Hint: this does not mean cell phones!

Basically if your safe area is the safest spot to be in now and for the foreseeable future then “stay put, hunker down, be stealth and take it hour by hour, day by day. Plan on the unexpected and you’re ahead of virtually everyone else who did no prep beyond buying some extra granola bars, a gun (still in the box with the ammunition probably misplaced after a couple of years), extra boxes of oatmeal, 10 gallons of water and one of those “100 in one” pocket tools sold in every hardware and sporting goods store. “Survival prep” is not that hard but it is more than an afternoon’s activity and it is not free (although you can rotate goods so you are just buying next winter’s toilet paper and canned goods now rather than next winter). Not counting guns, a thousand dollars can go a long way in “survival prep”. $5,000 (including guns) and you and your family of six will coast through this not much worse for the wear. As society begins to reassemble itself, the lights come back on, the TV works, 911 works and law and order returns people will ask “how did you manage to not lose 50 pounds like all the rest of us did? Best to keep quiet as bad things can come in waves. Put this time of society being restored to good use. Treat it as people do in hurricanes as the eye passes overhead - “restore, repair and replenish”. If it is truly over you can write a book about your experience ten years from now. But, to repeat, do not brag about how smart you were. I can’t count the possible future problems such boasting can bring you. Just keep quiet and let them wonder how you managed to remain so fit, trim and healthy. To finish this chapter, boiling it down even more when it comes to transportation: staying in your safe area = good while leaving with no real plan in mind = bad. Enough said?

Chapter 23

Medical

A book that will provide you everything you need to know about medical care both protection and treatment in a survival mode situation that could last weeks or months cannot be condensed into a chapter (in this book) of say 25 pages. I’d be doing you a disservice and, perhaps, even give you a false sense of (medical knowledge) security by attempting to include such a “short-form” medical “how-to” chapter in this book. It might even get you or someone else in your group killed or, at the least, not supply you needed information to properly diagnose and treat an illness or injury. I’ve read many books like this one that do attempt to condense considerable medical information into a few pages and call it a chapter on “medical preparedness”. That is dangerous!

There are many excellent and professional medical knowledge Web sites – use them and read all you have time for. But you really need at least two books that are written by doctors, cover most situations in depth and won’t go dead on you when the power quits (like your computer and the Internet). Rather than depend on this book or any general survival information book for information that could potentially save a life every group should have at least one copy of “Where There Is No Doctor: Village health care handbook” and “Where There Is No Dentist”. Multiple copies are better as that way more than one person reads in advance in their spare time and if you misplace a copy it is not potentially a matter of life or death. Don’t skimp and not buy the dentistry book. People have died from dental infections and the pain – well, almost everyone already knows the pain of a broken tooth exposing nerves. Imagine that pain for months on end! Besides the standard first-aid kits, buying a basic surgery kit is a good idea as well as buying a basic dental surgery kit. Both are available on the Internet. Just Google terms like basic surgery kit or survival surgery and dental surgery tools. Keep trying different terms and you’ll eventually find exactly what you need. Remember my comment about the THEPATRIOTNURSE channel on Youtube! What a great service this young lady is doing! Watch EVERY video numerous times and take notes.

Besides having these two books (look into others as well – you can’t have too many medical information books, a well-provisioned first-aid kit and surgical tools (medical and dental) it would be very helpful to have at least one person in your group who has taken a Red Cross first-aid class or classes, CPR, EMT training or has become CERT trained and certified. Google all of those terms. I say at least one person because the more the better. It’s not of much help to have your one person with some medical training be the person in desperate need of immediate medical care to save their life. Some of this training from various organizations is free while some charge a nominal fee. Their goal is not to make money so you will rarely end up paying what it costs the organization to train you (hint: they gladly accept donations!). You may go so far as to become a trained paramedic with CERT and EMT certification. That’s great and you’ll be donating your time to a worthy cause (having someone with medical knowledge – you – wherever you happen to be!). You may even be asked to be a volunteer or even paid paramedic.

As cold as it sounds your first priority is to your group. In the disaster of a wide-spread emergency if you are part of a paramedic/EMT/CERT/etc. group you would be expected to serve your community, not just your group. So obtain as much medical training as possible but think before you accept a paid or volunteer medical position in your community. Your group needs whoever the person or people are in your group who obtained the training. By the way, like any skill (i.e. use of guns to protect your area and group) you must stay practiced and up to date.

Well, that was a short chapter but it was also a long chapter as it is a must that you purchase and thoroughly read and understand the two books mentioned (plus many others!). If you or others in your group have the time to take classes, obtain certifications and even put your newly learned skills to use in actual medical situations where people are in need of medical care (such as a volunteer paramedic) but make sure they know they cannot depend on your services in a wide-spread disaster where your group will need your presence and your knowledge and training.

There is a saying you’ve probably heard that “a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing”. A medical doctor’s oath is “first, do no harm”. That should be yours as well when it comes to providing someone else medical assistance. You can quickly “get in over your head” depending on the severity of the medical or dental problem. So have those two books, read them thoroughly and take what classes you have time for. Don’t skimp on emergency surgery and dental tools and kits for sale on the Internet! Keep in mind “having time for” something as important as this is one of those “make the time” situations. When a serious medical problem arises after, say, four months but you didn’t take (made) the time to obtain the necessary training you will have years to regret your omission. You will have those two immensely critical books but nothing can substitute for actual training and experience. So do your group a major favor and make the time to receive as much real-life medical training as possible.

Last point and the most important: do not put this off! Buy the two books today, search for at least basic surgery and dental tools. The two books contain information about “basic layman’s surgery and dental tool kits” so you might wait until you’ve read both books to make sure you buy the correct tools and enough of them. But do not put off buying the books then buying the medical supplies and surgical tools the books recommend. If you don’t have time to, say, become a certified CERT medical aid CERT approved medical kits are available for anyone to purchase as are many surgical tools. Google the term CERT to learn all about training and certification but you’ll also find Web sites that sell the equipment used by certified CERT health care professionals. As I’ve already written you cannot overdo buying medical treatment items as well as buying like the two books already recommended or at least read medical Web sites that are known to contain complete and correct information (i.e. the Web site of John Hopkins, the Mayo Clinic) and not anecdotal information found on a blog written by someone with no medical knowledge. Such non-professional information can be dangerous. But if medical or dental care is absolutely required but professional help is probably month’s away, or more, you might have to perform surgery far beyond your newly learned knowledge but you will have to do it to save a person’s life then follow the medical or dentistry book and pray that Divine Providence is with you and the surgery is a success.

“Preparing in advance” for medical and/or dental needs are one of the most important “must do” action items in this book. Take it as serious as having enough food and water. If you don’t, you may find yourself burying a loved one when some time spent beforehand reading on the Internet might have averted such a catastrophe. “Nuf said?

Chapter 24

Sanitation

Sanitation is placed as the chapter following medical care on purpose. Good sanitation practices, liberal use of disinfectants goes hand in hand with medical care. Consider it “medical problem prevention”!

Assuming you are in relatively cramped quarters for an extended period of time (months) and there is more than one person you will quickly encounter issues that must be dealt with. Issues you’ve never faced before unless you ever spent time living among people in truly third-world nations. No running water or flush toilets and people who know little about sanitation. They are not stupid, they’ve just never been taught good hygiene and general sanitation. Plus they may not have the financial resources to afford more than hand-dug latrines and water from wells downhill from contamination of various types. Their children play among open sewers and soup and disinfectant are almost unknown to them. Dysentery and similar illnesses are a part of their every day lives. For these people, even when their bodies build up immunities to contaminants that would make any of us very sick or even kill, they still have points where their bodies cannot resist bacteria and contaminants that seems to be everywhere and in great amounts. For purposes of sanitation and personal hygiene we’ll act like we’re living in such a third-world country with the important difference being you know the importance of good sanitation and personal hygiene. Since there is no doctor or clinic to go to should a “bug” get into your group, you must practice good sanitation and personal hygiene as if your area is a hospital operating room. There is no such thing as keeping everything (and every person) “too clean”. Did you notice that the list of “you can’t have too much of” included many sanitation and hygiene items? As cheap as it all costs your area supply shelves should look like a janitorial supply store for a medical clinic. Bleach, spray and wipe disinfectant, ammonia, brushes, cleaning towels, insect and pest spray and traps, toilet bowl cleaner, steel wool type soap pads, cans of powdered cleaner, 20+ bars of hand or liquid soap per person per year, X rolls of toilet paper per person (what is “X” – it varies person to person – keep track of usage for a month and you’ll then know how much to buy).

Buy lots of the relatively new pump bottles of gel-type hand sanitizers. The ones you see on the counters at doctor’s offices these days. You probably use them already. They are a handy way to sanitize your hands when soap and water aren’t nearby. They are cheap so stock up with way more than math shows you’ll need. Have big bottles for economy plus small bottles so that each person can carry one in their pocket. A quick squirt and rub the clear gel into the skin each time you touch something rubbing until your hands are again dry. There are many good brands including Germ-X, Purell and too many more to mention. Don’t pass up the store brands as the ingredients are very basic and a less expensive store brand is probably just as good. Read the label. The active anti-bacterial agent is some form of alcohol. Look for that to be at least 60%. The remainder of the contents is mostly a petroleum-based suspension agent to evenly distribute the form of alcohol used and to keep it from burning your skin.

Did you know these relatively new “hand gel soaps” have been shown in lab tests to kill 90%+ more germs and bacteria than the best antibacterial soap, scrubbing well with hot water? Even in “normal times” have a bottle of that wonderful gel in your car, on your desk, in the kitchen – basically, everywhere! But it is of zero use if not used. Get in the habit of a quick squirt then rub it in and your hands are suddenly operating room clean! What a great but unsung invention! Personally I use it in nasal cavities, arms, around my mouth and so on. I guess you can get carried away. Reading the professional lab tests made a believer out of me! Remember, 95%+ of all of the “bad stuff” of the world enters your body through your mouth or nose. Use common sense and you’ll lower your number of “sick days” each year by a significant amount. What’s the other five percent? It is mostly skin absorption so it is possible to become sick by things like bug spray left on the arms after you’ve been spraying bushes for insects or whatever. A rule of thumb is within 15 minutes any “agent” left on the skin will have been absorbed. After 15 minutes it’s too late to wash it off. It’s already in your body and in your blood stream. Keep this in mind if exposed to anthrax or nuclear radiation particles. If exposed to your bare skin you only have minutes to clean it off before it is too late – it’s absorbed into your body.