Advanced Wilderness Life Support (AWLS)

Do you know the single most important initial treatment for someone who has been involved with a drowning incident?  Do you know what 'drowning: means?   This podcast covers these and other essential topics.  

Abdominal pain can be scary in the backcountry.   Allergic reactions are completely annoying but can also be severe.  Do they need to be evacuated?  Medicine in the backcountry is discussed. 

What is the best way to evacuate someone with chest pain?  How do you treat an asthma attack in the wilderness?  Here the basics of medicine for the backcountry are discussed. 

You don't need to know how to be a  diver in order to treat someone who has developed diving problems.  This podcast outlines what happens to the body when it is subjected to pressures as a diver goes down, and then returns to the surface too quickly.  

How quickly and to what temperature should frostbite be warmed?  Is frostnip dangerous?  What happens if skin is kept wet for a long time? And can cool moisture damage skin, even on a hot day?  You will need to know these issues to appropriately treat skin affected by cold temperatures. 

What are the ways that heat leaves the body?  What happens if heat is trapped in a human?  How is heat illness classified?  This important podcast outlines the prevention and treatment  of illnesses of a body becoming too hot. 

There is no more common injury than damage to the skin while in the backcountry.   There are many ways and methods to manage the different types of wounds.  Let's go over them. 

Blisters are  common for sure in outdoor activities.  Do you pop them?  What is the best way to prevent them?  What do you put on a wound under the bandage?  How about honey?  This podcast reviews these important and other questions.  

Once a patient who has been injured in the wilderness  has been stabilized, critical decisions must now be made.  Let's go through them by listening to this podcast. 

Fear and sometimes panic overcomes a rescuer when they come across someone who has been injured.  What is done first?  What is the MARCH protocol?   The concepts covered in this podcast outline the critical first steps in the management of someone injured in the backcountry .