First Aid and Medical Manuals

This page has links for first aid and medical manuals. First aid, as taught in most courses (particularly those for driving and in office), are geared towards keeping an injured person alive long enough for professionals to get there. In an urban scenario this should be as fast as 10-15 minutes.

But when sailing, even close to shore, the requirements are different. There is no quick ambulance service. No doctor or medic available at short notice. In the case of an emergency, one is left to one’s own devices.

The goal is the same, trying to keep someone alive or preventing deterioration until help arrives or one can get to help. But the short timeframe has now expanded to a matter of hours or days or, when offshore, for weeks.

Books

While I can’t recommend taking an outdoor first-aid course or a marine offshore course strongly enough, there’s a lot that can be done with a good medical cabinet and the information in the  PDF files / books listed below.

The first aid and medical manuals cover a wide gamut of possible injuries aboard. Some of the information such as dealing with gunshot trauma is less likely to be used, but the treating of injuries is well-covered and the Where There is no Doctor PDF files are great at helping to diagnose less obvious problems.