How To Treat a Mortal Wound When No Help Is Coming

So this is the situation, somebody you care about is hurt and bad as they have suffered a puncture wound. (whether it be by gunshot, stab wound, sharp tree branch etc)

We all know what to do right? Whip out your mobile phone and call for help.

Well what if today help was not coming, at least not right away or perhaps maybe not at all…

In a crisis situation such as a civil unrest or the aftermath of a hurricane, emergency services will also take a massive blow so you need to be prepared if someone became injured.

If this is your reality then you should be prepared to do the necessary actions which could potentially save this person’s life and this post aims to help you do that.

Disclaimer:

We do not in anyway claim to be healthcare professionals. All the information in this article has been sourced from the British NHS service and other medical blog articles or videos.

First thing to do

Try not to panic, yes you need to administer treatment as fast as you can but if you are freaking out, it will make actioning our suggestions 10x harder.

You may have the instinct to try and close up the wound yourself, even if you know how with medical tape or stitches don’t as you could hide any ongoing bleeding which could cause the build up of bacteria.

Another age old question would be do you pull the knife out?

Nope you must leave it in place, the knife or object would just cause bleeding the very second it’s removed turning a survivable wound into a fatal one.

By leaving it in this will stop any further damage to veins and arteries. So instead, try to stop the bleeding around the wound. (hopefully help is just slow in this scenario rather than not coming at all)

Act quickly in the early stages

Now you are faced with this situation, someone important to you finds themselves with a hole in them, what do you do?

1# Lay the person flat

Non-stop bleeding leads to shock and eventually unconsciousness. This is because blood pressure takes a nosedive due to reduced blood flow.

By having the injured person lying down it gives blood a better chance of still being able to circulate to the brain.

You could also prop their head up with a jacket, backpack or camping pillow provided they haven’t also sustained a head or neck injury.

2# Ensure their airway is not blocked

If the person was also out cold on top of their wounds, you should try to lay them on their side to ensure their tongue doesn’t block their airway.

However it would be a bad idea to move a person with broken bones or a bad head injury.

In that case you should look into what is known as “jaw jut”, this is basically when you have to put your fingers in their mouth and keep their airway clear.

Unless you can wake them up you may also have to hold it that way otherwise if your medical bag is awesome enough to have a nasopharyngeal airway device this could do it for you.

3# Check for other wounds

There could be a lot of bleeding from a puncture wound, so much so that it can be difficult to even determine where the damage even is.

Once you have treated the person be sure to check that they are not also bleeding from anywhere else.

Even if it is not as serious as a gunshot wound, there could be other deep cuts still causing blood loss.

You should never disregard a smaller flesh wound.

4# Stop any chance of infection

Normally this would be the ambulances job, but remember in this scenario, no help is on the way for a while.

So after you have done the first jobs to stop the immediate threat to life. You can work on ways to prevent infections.

Remember a gunshot wound, sharp tree branch or knife are all dirty wounds so the threat of infection is always lingering

• You should wash the wound with clean drinkable water
• Apply disinfectant cream or ointment to the wound
• The person could also take oral medicines to combat infection such bacitracin until they can be prescribed something

Bonus Tip

If the puncture is in the person’s lungs this is what is called a sucking wound. (yeah it totally sucks)

This is because air enters the lungs and is then breathed out but if another hole appears then it will also do the same thing.

The air can become trapped this way and cause pressure to build up around the lung which is known as tension pneumothorax.

Hopefully you have a chest seal in your survival medical bag as this can actually seal the puncture temporarily.

Check out this awesome video by SkinnyMedic on how to use one.

Conclusion

Hopefully you never find yourself in this situation but if you do at least you now are a little more well equipped on dealing with it.

As we said in times of crisis you may be unable to get help and someone could be worse off due to lack of knowledge until help arrives. We don’t want that for you or your family.

Anything you think missed? Then please comment below as any extra information could be really helpful to someone else.

Till next time survivors!