Posted: 8/2/2007 6:12:56 PM EDT
[Last Edit: ROMAD-556][Edited]
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In a recent thread a poster inquired about advanced first aid and I did some searching because I was interested as well. I didn't find too much that would be considered advanced. I did find an excellent resource for the current Combat Life Saver (CLS) training conducted by the US Army. I was first trained as a CLS back in 1997 and was re certified a few times but it has been several years since my last re-cert. The training has been helpful to me then and ever since - sure I haven't had to stick an IV outside of a classroom but I have ended up on the scene of a couple bad accidents and the knowledge was useful and reassuring. If you have never attended a US Army CLS course there are a couple mandatory things you *must* understand: - These are 'advanced' first aid techniques that will help stabilize a wounded person for the Golden Hour. This means CLS will buy you some time but it wont fix the main problem - make no mistake about that! You have to seek higher medical aid right away! - This material is intended to be taught by a 91B (combat medic) or 18B (SF medic). While all the CLS course material is available below it should not be confused as a replacement for instructor lead and graded training. - IV fluids are not available to plain old civilians. They are considered medicine and can only be purchased by medical personnel. ETA 06SEP08 - It appears that some but not all of the CLS links are no longer publicly available without an AKO account. I have marked the AKO only links for you. Here is the US Army Combat Live Saver Program home page: http://www.cs.amedd.army.mil/clsp/index.htm The most recent self study guide (edition B) can be found here: https://atiam.train.army.mil/soldierPortal/atia/adlsc/view/public/12232-1/ACCP/IS0871/toc.htm AKO Only The previous self study guide can (edition A) can be found here: http://www.cs.amedd.army.mil/clsp/IS0871.pdf The course presentation material can be found here: http://www.cs.amedd.army.mil/clsp/presentations.asp (lots of good stuff in there!) IS0871 Combat Life Saver Training Lesson Plan ============================ Lesson 1: PERFORMING TACTICAL COMBAT CASUALTY CARE (care under fire; tactical field care; combat casualty evacuation care) Lesson 2: EVALUATING A CASUALTY (breathing/bleeding/shock) Lesson 3: OPENING AND MANAGING A CASUALTY'S AIRWAY (CPR, inserting a nasopharyngeal airway) Lesson 4: TREATING PENETRATING CHEST TRAUMA AND DECOMPRESSING A TENSION PNEUMOTHORAX (checking/sealing, Tension pneumothorax and needle chest decompression) Lesson 5: CONTROLLING BLEEDING (field dressing/pressure dressing/pressure points and applying a Combat Application Tourniquet) Lesson 6: INITIATING A SALINE LOCK AND INTRAVENOUS INFUSION (Hypovolemic shock, saline lock and initiating fluids through a saline lock) Lesson 7: INITIATING A FIELD MEDICAL CARD (primary/secondary info, approved abbreviations) Lesson 8: REQUESTING MEDICAL EVACUATION (MEDEVAC) (9 line report) Lesson 9: EVACUATING A CASUALTY USING A SKED OR IMPROVISED LITTER (pick'em up and move'em out...carefully) Appendix COMBAT LIFESAVER MEDICAL EQUIPMENT SET (CLS bag inventory and item cost) Follow on information: -------------------------- Here is the current First Aid field manual with change 1 included, dated 2004 https://atiam.train.army.mil/soldierPortal/atia/adlsc/view/public/9553-1/fm/4-25.11/fm4_25x11.pdf AKO only Public access: http://www.operationalmedicine.org/Army/Milmed/fm4_25x11.pdf This manual includes specific steps for general aid giving techniques as well as specific techniques for specific situations. A great companion manual for much of the CLS info above. |
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More supplementary CLS training information Performance Systems Medical Division makes the Israeli Bandage that is increasingly replacing the standard, decades old USGI field bandage. Here is the PSMD provided training resources on the Israeli bandage (right click ~ Save as) Israeli Bandage Usage Instructions: Link Israeli Bandage Training Video (30MB): Link Israeli Bandage Demonstration Video (107MB): Link PSMD also makes the SOF Tourniquet (Combat Action Tourniquet) Here is their training resources on the SOF Tactical Tourniquet (right click ~ save as...) SOFT tourniquet usage instructions: Link SOFT tourniquet training video (7.5MB): Link SOFT tourniquet demonstration video (8.25MB): Link More CAT videos and info here In case you have trouble playing those videos you might want to check out VLC Media Player. VLC is a free player that will play just about any video file out there (come with lots of codecs). |
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SAM Medical makes the SAM splint used in many first responder situations Here is there SAM splint instructional PDF link They also have a detailed instruction PDF (dead link) http://www.sammedical.com/samsplintdirections.pdf ETA - Links fixed, SAM Splint videos appear to have been removed - I have copies of them if you need them or can host them (total of 14 .wmv files each about 6-9MB) |
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Further Tension Pneumothorax information emedicine link Operational Medicine 2001 - Needle a Tension Pneumothorax |
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Considering the fact that CLS is a short term stabilization skill that still relies on higher medical personnel, which may not always be readily available. Where There Is No Doctor Link This information was intended for 3rd world NGO workers to allow them some level of medical skills and knowledge but is not focused on trauma level care. None the less the target audience for this information should be compatible with anyone seeking CLS info. 
Download Them All will not work on these links - I do have all the PDFs zipped up (7.6MB) if someone can host them or email me for the zip file if you can accept attachments that large. Alternatively the same info can be found as a single pdf on this site: http://www.mrbill.net/survival/Where%20There%20Is%20No%20Doctor.pdf |
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Continuing with the theme of advanced first aid information...Listed below is the official DOT curriculum for EMT Basic. I would encourage anyone with the interest to seek out the offical instruction from your local community college (120 class room hours) or local FD/EMS - typically they will offer this level of training for volunteer programs. As with the CLS information above, it should not be confused as a replacement for instructor lead and graded training. Emergency Medical Technician-Basic: National Standard Curriculum This is the 1994 release of the Emergency Medical Technician-Basic: National Standard Curriculum. It contains the Course Guide and Instructor Lesson Plan and it is designed for instructors to teach the new EMT- Basic course. (right click ~ save as...) PDF Link Supplemental Airway Modules for the EMT-Basic This is a tool designed to assist EMS instructors with teaching the airway modules found within the 1994 EMT-Basic: National Standard Curriculum. This document supports, but does not replace, sections 2.1 and 4.2 of the EMT-Basic. (right click ~ save as...) PDF Link More EMT information can be found here |
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Continuing with the theme of advanced first aid information here is the FAK list and medical guide from NASA for the shuttle and ISS. Both have a lot of good information albeit some of the instructions for dealing with weightless environments wont really apply but the procedures and details in both are excellent information. Space Shuttle Medical Checklist Has advance first aid care instructions and picture/diagrams (right click ~ save as...2.2MB) PDF link INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION INTEGRATED MEDICAL GROUP MEDICAL CHECKLIST Lots and lots of good info with pictures/diagrams. Dual language English and Cyrillic Russian (right click ~ save as...23.9MB) PDF link |
Found a copy of the Pararescue Medication and Procedure Handbook, 2nd Edition, 2001 for download. Many good sections on the normal advanced first aid subjects and some others including DIVE EMERGENCIES, HIGH ALTITUDE ILLNESS, PHARMACOLOGY (nice section with OTC information as well as antibiotics and other prescription meds)
Pararescue Medication and Procedure Handbook Second Edition, 28 February, 2001 (right click ~ save as...3.4MB) MS Word .doc link |
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Here' some more good stuff, not directly related to CLS, but good medical info to have, more along the lines of 18D stuff maybe: Where there is no doctor Where there is no Dentist Survival and Austere Medicine Chest deco power point I have more, if interested, or let me know if I should post them elsewhere. |
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excellent course. i got to attend a VERY early version of it just prior to desert sheild kicking off. i hope they are teaching it full on to the medic now, the "soldier medic" class i got as a medic was abismal. i was already a certified paramedic when i went in and the training they gave those guys was horrible at best. |
TBS is an island of Sanity in a sea of bullshit.
jkstexas2001
Originally Posted By Cypher214:
If bigfoot makes it through 90 rounds of .223, 45 rounds of 9mm, and one sharp KaBar... he deserves my anal virginity.
jkstexas2001
Originally Posted By Cypher214:
If bigfoot makes it through 90 rounds of .223, 45 rounds of 9mm, and one sharp KaBar... he deserves my anal virginity.
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Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK) use is covered pretty well in the CLS class material but here is a great video showing some of its practical practical application. Shows pressure dressing, burn dressing, tourniquet, self aid, buddy aid and TCCC in real time action shots. USMC IFAK Video with Carl Weathers 10 min video and well worth watching. Alternate 79MB downloadable link of the same video: http://www.tecom.usmc.mil/gtb/videos/IFAK%20First%20Aid.wmv |
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I was doing a little link checking on my posts and it appears that most if not all of the CLS links in the FIRST POST are now AKO access only. A couple of the links are just coming up 404 so I'm not sure about those just yet. I will try to reverify those at a later time to see if they are still working.
ETA - Looks like the original stuff is back up and not 404! 
ETA#2 - It appears the main CLS site comes and goes with 404...might be due to bandwith restrictions but I admit that seems odd for a .mil site. None the less, it appears the links work best at the first of the month than the end of the month  . Odd for sure as they come and go. I have all the info and can upload it all if anybody has a public host for it all. The main CLS info is a couple hundred MB of PDF, PPT and DOC files with a handfull of WMV.
Here is an alternate set of CLS info: http://www.tacmed.dk/combat_life_saver.htm Armystudyguide.com has some decent info as well: http://www.armystudyguide.com/content/powerpoint/First_Aid_Presentations/index.shtml Here is a good bit of Buddy Aid/Self Aid info: https://rdl.train.army.mil/soldierPortal/atia/adlsc/view/public/12617-1/ACCP/IS0877A/toc.htm#toc Word .DOC link: http://www.accpguide.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=200 |
More stuff unrelated to CLS :
If you are really interested in medicine PHTLS is a pretty good fricken book to have. It's got a lot of ALS skills in it but covers the BLS basics very well. In fact its one of the first books to accept the validity of tourniquets in emergency medicine. It actually blew me away when I read it the first time, it says to go directly to a tourniquet when direct pressure/pressure dressing fails citing the lack of evidence for effectiveness of both arterial pressure points and elevation. Anyways couldn't find a pdf for it but here it is on amazon. Two versions(civvie and mil) from what I can tell they are pretty much the same but the military version I have has a chapter on military triage and care under fire. Civvie Edition Military Edition Not comprehensive by any means but has a lot of good stuff in it, with emphasis on the Golden Period. |
"A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?" -Albert Einstein
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Originally Posted By zspitfire04:
Sadly, they took out the IV portion from training. I have no clue as to why. My DS in basic still taught it to us on his own, but every time I have to get re-certified for CLS they won't touch on it.  It's because after so many years of IV being the biggest part of CLS training, the Army noticed that wounded Soldiers on the battle field were dying because their buddies were focused on getting an IV into them instead of treating the trauma. The focus has now shifted to treating GSW and blast injuries, the results speak for themselves, much better survival rate for wounded Soldiers. Still, being able to do an IV is a useful skill, especially when operating in Desert environments. |
Seriously......who farted?
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CLS doesn't cover blunt trauma injuries. I was injured in Hummer accident as a PLT SGT and the CLS guys had no clue what to do as I wasn't bleeding. Had to talk them through a head to toe survey and take my vitals.
Got ejected from the vehicle and landed on a rock with my spine. Was temporarily paralyzed for about 45 minutes. Scared the shit out of me. |
كافر
Its been a very long time since I attended a couple combat life saver courses, early 90's. They were very good courses. Still have a medic bag from one of the courses, wasn't thrilled when being stuck by an amateur giving me an IV 
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This world would be a better place to live if it weren't for people!
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Originally Posted By cda97: Its been a very long time since I attended a couple combat life saver courses, early 90's. They were very good courses. Still have a medic bag from one of the courses, wasn't thrilled when being stuck by an amateur giving me an IV I don't blame you there. I took the combat life saver course while stationed in Baumholder, Germany in 1993. They had us doing the IVs in our partners hands. My partner had the shakes really really bad and I told him he better get it right the first time (which he did). I haven't had to start an IV since then and definitely would not want to unless there was no other choice. I have to agree that the CLS course is well worth it especially if you have good instructors. |
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