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Survival · First Aid

Field first aid when 911 is not coming

Bleeding control, shock, burns, and bite protocols at hub level. 681 article titles. Species tables and SF Medical depth stay in the app.

§ 01

The direct answer

Life-threatening bleeding is the first problem you can actually fix with your hands. Direct pressure, a proper tourniquet high and tight on a limb, and packing a junctional wound (groin, armpit, neck) are the interventions that change outcomes before any plant poultice does. Then airway, then breathing, then hypothermia — trauma patients die cold.

This page will not publish snake-species tables or improvised surgery. Those 681 articles exist in the offline library, including the SF Medical Handbook material. What belongs here is the order of work and the thing most people get wrong: a belt is a bad tourniquet; a commercial windlass or a wide improvised band with a windlass is the standard. Note the time. Do not peek every two minutes.

Shock looks like pale, sweaty, anxious, thirsty. Lay the person down, keep them warm, stop bleeding, do not give food. Burns: cool with clean water, cover, do not apply grease. Bites: immobilize, photograph the animal if safe, do not cut or suck. Call emergency services whenever they exist. This app is a reference, not a replacement.

§ 02

Tourniquet — the one technique this page will teach

For life-threatening limb bleeding that pressure will not stop. Commercial CAT-style devices beat belts.

Place
High and tight on the limb — between the wound and the heart. Not on a joint.
Tighten
Windlass until bright-red bleeding stops. Distal pulse should disappear.
Secure + time
Lock the windlass. Write the time on the device or the forehead.
Do not
Do not loosen to 'check'. Do not use narrow cord as a first choice — it cuts tissue.
Junctional
Groin, armpit, neck: pack the wound and hold pressure. Tourniquets do not work there.
§ 03

In the offline library — titles only

10 titles · 681 articles in this cluster · full text in-app

  1. 01Wound Care in Survival: Cleaning, Dressing, and Infection Control
  2. 02Preventing and Treating Shock in Survival Emergencies
  3. 03Treating Burns in Survival: Field Methods for Pain Relief and Infection Prevention
  4. 04Field Antiseptics: Natural and Improvised Solutions for Wound Care
  5. 05Safe Travel in Snake Country: Step-by-Step Field Protocols
  6. 06First Aid First: When Medical Attention Takes Priority Over All Else
  7. 07Self-Assessment in the Field: Checking Your Physical Condition After Trauma
  8. 08Avoiding Poisonous Plants in the Tropical Jungle: Identification and First Aid
  9. 09Dangerous Lizards: Identification, Avoidance, and First Aid
  10. 10Thermal Radiation from Nuclear Explosions: Protection and Burn Treatment

Titles only. Full text, regional variants, and tables are in the offline library — they are not published on this site.

§ 04

Related

Food →Ask the Manual →Medical disclaimer →

All nine topics: survival index. Educational reference — disclaimer.

Then get it on the phone

You’re reading this with a signal. The situation it describes is one where you won’t have one.