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United States Air Force:
Survival Medicine
Objective:
 Know basic survival medical
procedures, treatments, and
prevention measures when
faced with medical
encounters
The Elements of Surviving
 Medical Encounters
 Health Requirement
 Rules for Avoiding Illness
 Medical Emergencies
Goals of a Survivor
The two fundamental goals of a
survivor:
 Maintain Life
 Return
And in survival medicine, the
goals have not changed
Survivor Medicine: The Basics
 The most frequent injuries are fractures,
strains, sprains, and dislocations, as well as
burns and other types of wounds.
 Many survivors have difficulty in treating
injuries and illness due to the lack of
training and medical supplies.
 Injuries and illnesses complicated certain
environments can reduce survival
expectancy.
Survivor Medicine: The Basics
Survival medicine encompasses procedures and
expedients that are:
 Required and available for the preservation
of health and the prevention, improvement,
or treatment of injuries and illness
encountered during survival.
 Suitable for application by nonmedical
personnel in the circumstances of the
survival situation.
 Survival medicine is more than first aid in
the conventional sense…why?
Survivor Medicine: Hygene
 In a survival situation, cleanliness is
essential to prevent infection.
Adequate personal cleanliness will
not only protect against disease
germs that are present in
individual’s surroundings, but will
also protect the group by reducing
the spread of these germs.
 The principal means of infecting
food and open wounds is contact
with unclean hands
Why the feet?
Survivor Medicine: Hygene
 Soap, although an aid, is not essential to
keeping clean. Ashes, sand, and fertile soil
may be used to clean the body and cooking
utensils.
 Hair provides a surface for the attachment of
parasites and the growth of bacteria. Hence, it
should be kept trimmed.
Survivor Medicine: Rest
 Rest is necessary for the survivor
because it not only restores physical
and mental energy, but also
promotes healing during an illness
or after an injury.
 If possible, regular rest periods
should be planned in each day’s
activities.
Survivor Medicine: General Rules
 All water obtained from natural sources
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should be purified before consumption.
The ground in the camp area should not
be soiled with waste.
After each meal, all eating utensils should
be cleaned and disinfected in boiling
water.
Remove and bury all food scraps, cans,
and garbage.
A survivor should get 7 to 8 hours of sleep
each night.
Survivor Medicine: Breathing
Breathing Problems. Any one of the
following can cause airway difficulty,
resulting in stopped breathing:
 Foreign matter in the mouth or
throat that blocks the opening to the
trachea.
 Face or neck injuries.
 Inflammation and swelling of mouth
and throat caused by inhaling
smoke, flames, and irritating vapors
or by an allergic reaction.
 Kink in throat or tongue blocks
passage of air to the lungs upon
unconsciousness.
Survivor Medicine: Bleeding
 Severe bleeding from any major blood
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vessel in the body is extremely
dangerous.
The loss of 1 liter of blood will produce
moderate symptoms of shock.
The loss of 2 liters will produce a severe
state of shock that places the body in
extreme danger.
The loss of 3 liters is usually fatal.
In a survival situation, you must control
serious bleeding immediately because
replacement fluids normally are not
available
Survivor Medicine: Arterial Bleeding
 Blood vessels called arteries carry
blood away from the heart and
through the body.
 A cut artery issues bright red blood
from the wound in distinct spurts or
pulses that correspond to the
rhythm of the heartbeat.
 Arterial bleeding is the most serious
type of bleeding. If not controlled
promptly, it can be fatal.
Survivor Medicine: Venous Bleeding
 Venous blood is blood that is
returning to the heart through blood
vessels called veins
 A steady flow of dark red, maroon,
or bluish blood, characterizes
bleeding from a vein.
 You can usually control venous
bleeding more easily than arterial
bleeding.
Survivor Medicine: Capillary Bleeding
 The capillaries are the
extremely small vessels that
connect the arteries with the
veins. Most commonly
occurs in minor cuts and
scrapes.
Survivor Medicine: Stop the Bleeding
 You can control external bleeding by
direct pressure, indirect (pressure
points) pressure, elevation, digital
legation, or tourniquet.
Survivor Medicine: Shock
 Shock (intense stress reaction) is not
a disease in itself. It is a clinical
condition characterized by
symptoms that arise when cardiac
output is not enough to fill the
arteries with blood under enough
pressure to provide an adequate
blood supply to the organs and
tissues.
 Treatment consists of stopping all
activities (when possible), relaxing,
evaluating the situation, water, and
formulating a plan of action
Survivor Medicine: Fractures
 There are basically two types of
fractures: open and closed. With an
open (or compound) fracture, the bone
protrudes through the skin and
complicates the actual fracture with an
open wound.
 The closed fracture has no open
wounds. Immobilize, set and splint the
fracture.
 The signs and symptoms of a fracture
are pain, tenderness, discoloration,
swelling deformity, loss of function,
and grating.
 You can make an improvised traction
splint using natural material
Survivor Medicine: The Basics
 The accidental over stretching of a tendon
or ligament causes sprains.
 The signs and symptoms are pain,
swelling, tenderness, and discoloration
(black and blue).
 When treating sprains, think RICE:
R - Rest injured area.
I - Ice for 24 hours, then heat after that.
C - Compression wrapping and/or splinting
to help stabilize.
E - Elevation of the affected area.
Survivor Medicine: Snakebites
 Deaths from snakebites are rare. More
than one-half of the snakebite victims
have little or no poisoning, and only
about one-quarter develop serious
systemic poisoning.
 Before you start treating snakebite,
determine whether the snake was
poisonous or nonpoisonous. Bites from a
poisonous snake may have rows of teeth
showing, but will have one or more
distinctive puncture marks caused by
fang penetration.
Survivor Medicine: Heatstroke
 The breakdown of the body’s heat
regulatory system (body
temperature more than 40.5ºC
[105ºF]) causes a heatstroke.
 Signs and symptoms of heatstroke
are swollen, beet-red face,
reddened whites of eyes, victim not
sweating, and unnatural paleness
or absence of color in the skin, a
bluish color to lips and nail beds,
and cool skin.
Survivor Medicine: Hypothermia
 Defined as the body’s failure to maintain
a temperature of 36ºC (97ºF).
 Exposure to cool or cold temperature over
a short or long time can cause
hypothermia.
 Gradually warm the hypothermia victim.
Get the victim into dry clothing. Replace
lost fluid, and warm him.
United States Air Force:
Survival Medicine
Objective:
 Know basic survival
medicine procedures,
treatments, and prevention
measures when faced with
medical encounters