Trauma: The Importance of the Golden Hour

Trauma:  The Importance of the Golden Hour

Back in the 1970s, a doctor coined the phrase the golden hour as a way to refer to the importance of getting a patient to definitive care as quickly as possible.  In fact, our entire modern healthcare system is designed to get trauma patients to a suitable facility from anywhere in the country within this time-frame.  However, this is a tall order, even under the best of circumstances.  Consequently, any type of disaster or mass-casualty situation can easily overwhelm this well-oiled machine.

This reality places a burden on first responders as well as individuals who only know basic first aid techniques.  There will most definitely be a time when the SHTF, and it will be up to ordinary people to render aid and stabilize patients in order to give them a fighting chance at survival.  While people in this situation will not be able to get patients to definitive care in this time frame, the intervention they provide can make all of the difference in the world.

Learn Basic First Aid

Everyone who is serious about survival preparedness needs to know basic first aid.  This involves things like CPR, rescue breathing, stopping bleeding, immobilizing injuries and preventing shock.  It involves knowing when to induce vomiting after someone ingests a toxic substance or when to give them food to slow the digestive process.  Identifying major health conditions and providing basic treatment such as managing diabetic episodes, injecting epinephrine after an allergic reaction to a bee sting or suturing wounds in the field are also critical skills to possess.

The more you can do now to become familiar with appropriate steps to stabilize a patient, as well as being comfortable doing so can literally save lives in the future.   

Prepare for Anything

We’ve discussed various emergency first aid techniques numerous times in the past along with ideas regarding what to put in survival first aid kits.  However, there are other important things to be mindful of that will help you, and your patient, to get the most appropriate care in a timely manner.

You should consider any challenges that you may face out in the field, and become familiar with how to address them.  There’s no way that any one of us can be prepared for everything, but we can be in a position where we can use our knowledge, experience and skills to improvise.  Consider how you would rescue someone in your party who has fallen into a ravine and is unconscious.  How would you deal with a combative patient who has a serious head injury?  How will you rescue someone in distress on the water?

Not only do we need to know how to treat and stabilize patients, but we also need to know how we’re going to extract and evacuate them to an appropriate medical facility.  Unfortunately, there are no blanket answers that address these real concerns.  Even the best trained medics out there will tell you that their skill-set and equipment only takes them so far.  A lot of rescues occur as the result of good teamwork and ingenuity.  Consequently, it’s up to all of us to be prepared to do the same when the situation arises.

The golden hour is intended to devise systems and procedures that will get trauma patients to an appropriate facility as quickly as possible.  Getting them stabilized and extracted are two key components to this process.  There is a good chance that you may be responsible for dealing with these components in a survival situation, even if medical care is a long way off.

Your intervention can mean the difference between life and death.  The importance of learning basic first aid and rescue techniques ranks just as high as learning how to build a fire or shelter.  Don’t forget to include this in your survival planning, because there’s a really good chance that you will need to put it into practice when you least expect it.

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