CONTROLLING CHAOS

Medical training hasn’t always been the most popular topic in the survivalist community, with many preppers choosing to prioritize skills that sound more exciting or impressive — the sort of thing you’d see in a James Bond movie rather than a textbook. However, in my humble opinion, medical training is just as important as being trained in the use of a firearm. With a little bit of knowledge and practice, the average person absolutely can render aid in the critical first few minutes of a trauma scenario, and those actions might make the difference between life and death.

We often hear that it takes around seven minutes for an ambulance to arrive on scene. In that time frame, someone could bleed out and die without intervention. A four-hour class on the use of a tourniquet could’ve saved a life. If the scene had multiple casualties, a two-day class could’ve started the process of