Survival/ First Aid kit.

[Librarian]

Even more surprising is the controversy of whether CPR itself provides enough benefit to be worth doing if you're the only one available to get professional medical help for a victim in the field as opposed to dedicating every moment to get a paramedic and their equipment there.

Given the ordinary availability of EMTs and transport to hospitals, I'd certainly get that going first; indeed, in all the classes I have ever taken since 911 became available, the very first thing we were taught to do was point to another bystander, if any, and command "YOU - call 911!". That is not different for the classes I have taken since becoming an RN (but I do need to go recertify).

If that means leaving the victim to go someplace where there is a phone, or where there is cell phone service, so be it.

After all, we do CPR of any kind only on someone who is not breathing and has no pulse. In lay terms, that's "dead".

 

[Kayaker 1960]

CPR

I'm an avid whitewater kayaker, In my case a situation requiring CPR would also mean that help is not minutes but hours away. There is a fair chance that a healthy, active and physically fit adult could be rescued from cold water after +- 10 minutes of immersion and could be saved with CPR. So far I've only seen CPR attempted on 2 very elderly and unhealthy people, both times were failures.

 

[FM12]

A Boy Scout Handbook for an instant refresher and immediate info.

 

[Kayaker 1960]

CPR

I take a 2 day Wilderness First Aid every four to five years. I've also taken 2 Swift Water Rescue courses.
When things go bad you don't have time to stop and read!

 

[Trent]

One of the instructors I took the NRA instructor training classes with this year was a real interesting fellow. He was in a motorcycle crash - was hit by a drunk driver. His leg was taken off above the knee; one arm was broken, many ribs broken. Half his face was torn away (many skin grafts to give him a face again.)

Despite the wounds, he managed to take his belt off with one hand and applied it as a tourniquet on his severed leg, while waiting for help to arrive. His girlfriend laid deceased a few feet away from him.

The human mind and body can be remarkably resilient - if you have the inner strength to take action.