Follow Up: Medical References

 

From a question in comments to the previous post today.

In order:

First Tier

1. The ACEP First Aid Manual Start here. PERIOD.

2a. Wilderness Medicine: Beyond First Aid, Forgey 

2b. The Prepper's Medical Handbook, Forgey

3. Special Operations Forces Medical Handbook 

4. Survival Medicine Handbook, Alton and Alton

5. Auerbach's Wilderness Medicine (2 vol.)

6. SOF Combat Casualty Care

7a. Where There Is No Doctor *Medical care for the Turd World, but that may be you someday.

7b. Where There Is No Dentist *One of the only texts I know of that deals with dental care under austere circumstances.

Honorable Mentions:

The entire medical section in the classic SAS Survival Handbook.

Also, any Red Cross medical handbook from before 1960, solely for the sections on bandaging and splinting, which cover techniques that still hold up, and are no longer covered by anyone currently. Forget anything from that era having to do with snakebite treatment, or whatever CPR was called then, but the bandaging and splinting techniques, though old, are just as good now as they were then, and you won't find them easily too many other places.

Secondary

There are a ton of second-tier texts out there, seldom actually bad, but not anywhere near the same league as the above texts. If your favorite isn't listed above, bummer. I've seen a lot of books that are okay, but the ones I named above are comprehensive, and good. You can do worse, but you won't do better.

You may find some utility in military medical manuals, for some purposes. Other than the two I mention last, there may frequently be found some utility in learning geared towards someone who dropped out in 9th grade, working in Turd World conditions. As long as the text isn't pre-Vietnam, you might get your hands on something worthwhile in some aspects. But check anything found against the comprehensive and modern references listed at the top of this post first.

The next level is actual medical texts, used by doctors, if you have a licensed practitioner (MD, PA, RN) in your midst.

The go-to for my career field is Tintinalli's Emergency Medicine Handbook.

2160 pages, $189, and geared for an ER doc with access to Xrays, ultrasound, CT scanners, MRIs, plus a lab and a pharmacy. But still how residents learn how to do ED medicine.

Other good choices would be a nursing pharmacology handbook, and standard medical manuals on primary care and diagnosis, orthopedics, an atlas of skin disorders, and on and on.

Anything beyond primary and preventative care is either going to require definitive treatment beyond what you can do yourself (which you may or may not have access to), or your patient(s) are going to have problems ranging from chronic to terminal. You're not going to solve surgical problems, most infectious diseases, major burns, or most critical traumas, because you don't have the resources to do much beyond initial stabilization, which assumes access to secondary and tertiary care.

Which means if you're beyond access to 1st world care, including anesthesia, antibiotics, and general pharmacy needs, like you will be in extreme circumstances - people will die, including those nearest and dearest to you, and you can't prevent that.

So mortuary texts on handling bodies, prevention of outbreaks after people die (potentially with infectious diseases), and strong disinfectants, aren't a bad idea. Burial and cremation activities become more important as life spans shorten, in austere circumstances.

Bottom Of The Barrel

Books that are mostly a complete waste of time and money, except as historical reference:

Special Forces Medical Handbook ST 31-91 (1982) - any version

50 years out of date, this is about as currently useless as medical texts from the Civil War, or ancient Greece. If you want to learn things from 1982, go ahead on. After you're completely fluent in the first ten or so books at the top of this post. In your ample spare time.

Emergency War Surgery

If you're a doctor, you know better medical texts. And if you aren't one, you aren't going to be doing anything in this book, and if you do, your patient will die. Either screaming, or from the inevitable infection from trying to do 21st century surgery under 17th century conditions. Just...don't.

We're not trying to get you through medical school here, just get you up to speed on fundamentals of primary care, both in the field, and in an off-grid (short-term or longer) situation.

Get all the knowledge and experience you can now, while it's both cheap, and easily available.

When you're 5000 miles from help up Schitt's Creek, or in a Turd World/Civil War era medical situation, it's too late to crack a friggin' book, or take a class.