Basejumper.com - archive

if everybody have this it will prevent unnecessary deaths.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/...Emergency_tourniquet

Used these on my buddies legs in Afghanistan after he stepped on a bomb. I put them on within one minute of the blast and they ended up saving his life for 15 minutes until the medevac got there. Which is pretty good because he was missing both his legs from the knee down. Some combat gauze used in conjunction with this will really go a long way to stem the bleeding until help can arrive. Make sure that the tourniquet is as high up as possible on the appendage in order to be most effective. Also, tighten it down until you can't anymore, but be warned, if they're still awake they're gonna be pissed.

Another method in lieu of this is to use your knee or elbow and put it on the armpit or groin area in order to slow down the bleeding. Once again it's going to hurt but it's a lot better than bleeding out. I'm sure other improvisations can be made on the fly, we all have bridal webbing and hook knifes anyways, and we can always replace gear, but not people.

Edited cuz i cant spell gud

I think part of responsibly carrying medical equipment is knowing how and when to use it, usually from formal training. Using a tourniquet at the wrong time, when an Israeli bandage would have sufficed could unnecessarily cost you or your buddy a leg. Tourniquets (especially CAT types, which are quite prevelant) are pretty straight forward, but not knowing rules like "2-4 inches above injury/joint" could turn a below the knee amputee into an above the knee amputee or an above the knee amputee into a fatality. They stopped issuing IV bags to some American soldiers deploying because they were being used in inappropriate situations or being administered incorrectly.

I've also known people who pre set two tourniquets as high as they could go on their legs before they left the wire. I haven't gone to that extent, but it's worth considering if you're doing something ridiculously silly. I'm not saying not to carry this medical equipment (I'm currently organizing my own leg pouch FA Kit), but educating yourself on the equipment you carry is equally important to carrying it.

One suggestion for a start to an emergency kit:

http://www.amazon.com/...ew?ie=UTF8&lm_bb

Great point, I should have mentioned that also.

Luckily there are plenty of men and women around
who have some experience and willing to teach.

Any jumper who is not a tourist should have some
basic skills and each crew should have a big bag:

1. medical schtuff
2. some ropes
3. carabiners
4. hand saw

Lastly, here is a trick I heard somewhere and
have started using after a few too many tree
rescues, make all newbies and non-climbers
carry dental floss, cheap as chips and makes
getting them a rope for rescue much easier.

I highly recommend this as well.

For deadly bleeding, I'm curious about Celox (I'm not a paramedic/trauma expert, just a first-aider):
https://www.vancouvertacticalsupplies.com/medical/CELOX.php

And another is the SWAT-T tourniquet:
https://www.vancouvertacticalsupplies.com/.../tourniquet_swat.php

At the risk of steering the conversation in the wrong direction:
I struggled to find dental floss long enough and worried about the breaking strength so I got 300ft 50lb single filament Spectra fishing line. That should be enough to pull up rope rescue gear and it doesn't take up much room.

this ones? easy to find in every dedicated stores. 50m long. easy to carry in your pocket or legstraps saddlebags

I don't see a lot of utility on carrying around the "quick clot" type medications in a base trauma kit. They mostly work in situations of penetrating trauma which is why the military likes them, but they're almost never used outside of that scenario. Base is more likely to give you internal injuries from blunt force trauma, or broken extremities (which applying a torniquette will usually work even better)


There are a couple of things that you can easily learn how to do that could literally safe someone's life in the field. 1. Traction splint for a femur fracture. 2. Applying a pelvic binder for an unstable pelvis.

I've never actually met anyone that's used floss, but I did witness someone have to cut their lines to get a rope about 80 ft up a tree.

I've never really understood the dental floss thing too, it seems like it would only help in pretty specific scenarios (ie- stuck jumper is able to 1. move freely and 2. has easy access to a sturdy limb to run the rope over once they pull it up with the floss.

Every tree landing i've seen has put the jumper way too far away from the limb they need- so even if the rope was in their hands it wouldn't matter.

I used to always carry a throw bag like the attached whenever I had ropes with me. The weight at the end makes a huge difference when you are trying to thread the needle of a tree. I've even seen people use slingshots to fire the weight and set ropes on really tall trees (that is what they do at bridge day).

Medically speaking - I don't think I have met a non-medical jumper who could traction splint a femur in the field (AKA- Doctors and EMT's excluded). I'm sure there are some, but i'm assuming it is rare. Having just experienced a fractured femur/pelvis/ect myself- I am pretty glad I was close to trained responders. I highly recommend that all jumpers learn as much as they can about rope rescue and basic medical care. If you BASE jump- you will eventually see people get fucked up. If my accident happened in Moab (or other remote site), it would have been up to my friends to save my life.

I have a femur-traction device in my med-kit
and a PJ (military para-rescue jumper) gave
me a couple hours of instruction. Hope to
God I never to use it but damn glad it is
there just in case.

Sorry about your buddy's pelvis injury, can
one of you experts tell me a bit about how
lay people should handled that in the field?

RE: Tree rescues

I have done many in FL, a few in ID and SC.
Methods varied each case with circumstances
and honestly the skill of the jumper/climber.

In a few, we have had newbies stuck who
were too scared to climb to safety without
a rope as backup, hence the floss to get
them some line. We have used a baseball
on a string to send up ropes before and
have never used the floss method but
in two recent cases it would have helped
hence I bought some and give them to
the weakest climber or newest jumper.

Fishing line is stronger than floss and still light/small enough to carry, if you want to go that route.

That is awesome you went the extra mile to get a traction device and training. Hopefully you never have to use it, but great that you are prepared.

RE: Tree Rescue- I get the point about using the floss to get the rope up to whoever is in the tree... but they still need to get the rope over a limb to setup a belay right? The one's i've seen the jumpers were suspended and not able to get a rope over a safe limb- in those cases a throw bag allows for the ground crew to setup the whole belay system and the suspended jumper just needs to tie in and be lowered. I could also be totally misunderstanding what you are describing.

Oh and the injury wasn't a buddy, it was me. And I have no clue what an appropriate action would be for a pelvis injury. I was "lucky" enough to impact a few blocks from a fire station

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Omg79Ced6s0
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp_FkLTyE9E

Broken pelvises bleed like crazy. I've had two friends in two years both die from pelvic fractures that they were conscious after their injury and bled out. Ambulances and trauma centers use a fancy device called a pelvic binder that kind of looks like a girdle, but the principle is the same.

thanks for sharing the videos, very useful information

my self-rescue kit is now 100' of 4 mm utility cord, two locking biners, and a trad-length sewn sling. fits easily in a saddle bag or cargo pocket. This is more than enough to get me out of most places I could currently get stuck, but it takes practice to learn how to safe-ish-ly use it.

edit to add:

ditto on the quick-clot stuff.

Why put any medical supplies in your personal kit that you don't know how to use? it's not just a waste of money-- you will probably do more harm than good with it anyway.

http://www.refactortactical.com/rats-tourniquet/

 its way above most peoples confort level, but a large neddle for decompressing a collaped lung.
the canadian military teaches most infantry to do it when there deployed so anyone can do it...and its better then the options of death.

just ensure your getting good trainning, its easy to do right.

another nice device if you're jumping without mobile phone connection or the exact location is hard to describe. not really cheap because you have to pay every month for satellite connection but what's your live worth?
http://www.findmespot.eu/en/index.php?cid=100
if you need it outside from the orange areas go for the more expensive one.
http://www.findmespot.eu/en/index.php?cid=108
http://www.inreachdelorme.com/

In a pinch tourniquets can be made of just about anything: rope, neckerchiefs, belts, even parachute line (you'd want to use multiple strands to broaden the surface area) coupled with a pen, sharpie, screwdriver, or stick to twist the material and apply tension should do the trick, then just tie or tape it off.

Most emergency trauma first aid is not rocket science. There are multiple 10-20 minute videos on youtube that show how to make a traction splint out of sticks. Here's a pretty good one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWzYAswEWko

Off hand, I would also recommend brushing up on CPR and spinal stabilization techniques, wilderness stretcher building, and emergency trach procedure ( http://www.tracheostomy.com/resources/surgery/emergency.htm )

it's getting cold... a mylar blanket can make the difference.

after jumping of a slippery railing i found out that a small spray bottle with de icer is nice to have