Worst medical situation you've had on a canoe trip

[PaddlingPitt]

For those of you venturing into the bleak unknown, a worthwhile read is "The Twenty Ninth Day", wherein the author gets attacked by a grizzly bear in the Dubawnt environs. He sustains significant puncture wounds, and the trip leader does an admirable job tending to him, using up a considerable amount of dressings over the trip. It brings about two questions: a) do I have the skills to deal with such an emergency, and 2) is my first aid kit big enough?

My answer to both questions, for me, is no. I took a wilderness first aid course about 30 years ago, but we did not address such serios injuries. I suppose my only recourse we be to have communication, which I usually have not had. Perhaps both foolish and lucky.

 

[jdeerfoot]

Can't say i have ever had any significant medical issues in literally many thousands of miles of paddling including in recreational paddling, racing and race training.

However I have been well prepared by having paddled with many highly trained professional medical people. I have often paddled the Yukon River and other canoe race events with some or all of these medically trained friends: a county clinical pathologiist, an active duty military combat medic fresh from recent duties iin Iraq and Afghanistan, a hospital surgical suite coordinator, a cardiac surgeon's physician's assistant, a physical therapist, and a hospice end of life care provider. Thankfully I have not needed the services while canoeing of either the first or the last person on that list, all interesting people and good to have their experiencess and skills on a remote wilderness trip.

I know what you mean. I am always happy to travel with my son-in-law who is a pulmonologist/critical care doc who served 12 yrs in the navy including stints with the Marine Corp in Afghanistan. As part of his training he did rotations at hospitals in Los Angeles where learned to treat many types of trauma. He always brings a very comprehensive medical kit which he has not had to use yet.

 

[PacketFiend]

For those of you venturing into the bleak unknown, a worthwhile read is "The Twenty Ninth Day", wherein the author gets attacked by a grizzly bear in the Dubawnt environs. He sustains significant puncture wounds, and the trip leader does an admirable job tending to him, using up a considerable amount of dressings over the trip. It brings about two questions: a) do I have the skills to deal with such an emergency, and 2) is my first aid kit big enough?

2) I would hope so. My first aid kit contains no shortage of gauze - many of the smaller items are removed to make room for more gauze.

Because you'll never need two hundred bandaids of various sizes. If you *NEED* first aid, my thinking is you'll need gauze, and S#!TT0NS of it.

The first aid kit I carry includes battle dressings, silver nitrate, and hemostatic bandages and is designed specifically for a Gaping Chest Wound or Compound Fracture injury (and in my specific case, diabetic emergencies). Enough to buy us enough time until the cavalry arrives.

I would only hope that I can manage as well as my gear can enable me to.

 

[TrailBlaser]

Fortunately I have never had anything really bad happen in more than 50 years off canoe camping. My worst injury was about two weeks ago, when I tripped on a root while unloading the canoe at a campsite, hitting my knee on another root. It didn't take long for it to swell and stiffen up. By the next morning it was worse and with a change in weather conditions coming, I figured I'd better get out while the going was good. Luckily I had a knee compression sleeve with me, so after taking a couple of Tylenol, I broke camp, loaded up and headed out. It was a short paddle to the first carry of about 300 yards, then a paddle of about a mile to the take-out. I was lucky enough to see a couple I had met and conversed with on the way along the way. They were a bit surprised to see me, as we had discussed my being in for 7 days. When I explained what happened, they told me they would help me carry my gear the 1/3 mile back to the parking area. They each made one trip with my gear, so I only had to make one myself with the canoe (a Hornbeck weighing in at 18 lbs.) and a light pack with camera gear. I will be forever grateful for their thoughtfulness and kindness. On the drive home I called my orthopedist and made an appointment for the next day. After x-rays and an exam, it turned out is was a "soft tissue" injury, so the structure of my knee was fine (other than the arthritis that was already there). Two weeks of resting, elevating and icing it has resulted in the re-appearance of my knee cap and getting back to normal. It was a lesson learned - now that I am older, I cannot take my mind and concentration off what I am doing even for a few seconds. The fact that I have unloaded a canoe probably tens of thousands of times really doesn't matter; I must be thoughtful and careful in everything I do, especially because I am solo 98% of the time.

 

[recped]

I mostly do fractures, so far 2 fingers, 1 thumb and 1 rib, the first finger was 30 years ago on the upper Missinaibi, it was moderately severe making things a bit difficult. I forget when the 2nd finger was but it was just a minor fracture which really didn't get in the way to much of an extent. The rib was on the Moisie in 2009, it was quite minor and I wasn't aware there had been an actual fracture until several years later when it was identified on a CT scan for an unrelated matter. The thumb was on my 2014 Natashquan trip, it was by far the worst of the bunch being on my (dominant) right hand, it came about when my thumb was crushed between the gunnel and a giant boulder in a Class 3 rapid, I had to live with it for 12 days and a number of difficult portages while doing almost everything with my left hand. Fortunately it did not impede my paddling that much but any other type of the usual camp tasks were a real pain!

I had one other medical incident that was not immediately critical but a bit scary, I'm saving that story for a trip report (now 3 years in the making!).

 

[Basically Bob]

Wacked my head on a broken-off white pine branch while loading the canoe. Bled like crazy. My wife was ecstatic because she had the opportunity of opening up and using the first aid kit. She took great pleasure in wrapping a sanitary napkin around my head … was very embarrassing when I met another tripper on the first port. LOL

 

[lowangle al]

I burned my hand one time while dousing the fire before vacating a campsite. When I was pouring water on the leftover coals the ground was so hot a jet of steam shot up and burned me. It hurt like heck, but I got relief when I submerged my hand in the lake. Not being able to keep my hand submerged while traveling I put on a glove and kept it wet to get the relief. While my hand was wet I had no pain, in fact I had really no pain until three days later when it scabbed up.

 

[scoutergriz]

I've had multiple minor injuries- cracked a couple of ribs falling onto a rock, mildly torn rotator when the wind yanked the canoe off my shoulders (hint, if the wind gods really want your canoe, let them have it) broken fingers, and numerous lacerations from everything from a beaver stick buried in the sand to razor sharp quartz or granite, but the worst accidents seem to happen to those around me- A friend's kid filleted his thumb twice with a bow saw, another panicked when a big, biker looking dude saw him and asked if he was lost (guy was actually a youth pastor) and sliced his knee bad requiring several steri-trips and , another time a kid from another group sunk a hatchet into his calf- that one required a stapler and 2 packs of surgical staples, I've also helped locate a drowning victim and tried to resuscitate someone that had a massive heart attack, sadly both cases turned into recoveries and not something I ever want to go through again...

 

[Black_Fly]

In the middle of WCPP, my wife was slicing some summer sausage with her knife, which I had sharpened pre-trip. She was cutting toward her hand and I mentioned it. Not 10 seconds later, she sliced open her hand. I now carry a surgical stapler.