Saturday 23rd November 2013

The wilderness medicine module kicked off today. Instructor Andrew is definitely going to deliver this in style and will keep us captivated for the four day duration with his unique approach.

Today could very much be described as ‘shock and awe’, the focus was on prevention rather than cure and also to prepare us for what we may be faced with.

one injury every three hours on a game reserve and one death every 15 days. SAN Parks

We had stories and many a graphic photo and video when errors are made, people break the rules or are just plain stupid. Andrew wants to make sure we don’t make the same mistakes and lose our lives or those of our guests.

The whole day was very sobering with images of gunshot wounds, human remains and open cavities from wild animal attacks. This was all to much for some who had to leave the lecture hall to lie down.

In terms of medical treatment, we learnt that the multi-purpose use of tampons are wilderness medicines answer to Blue Peter’s sticky back Sellotape. They’re great for plugging gun shot wounds or puncture wounds from a leopards canines.

We finished the day with unrelated funny videos as a bit of an escape.