Survivalist Anthologies Volume 1

by George Shepherd

  First, you need some supplies. Suture kits are available commercially at various online sites, and are comprised of the following items:

  A needle holder

  Forceps (looks like tweezers)

  Gauze pads

  Suture scissors

  A sterile drape to isolate the area being repaired

  Some type of antiseptic solution such as Betadine or Hibiclens will be needed and, of course, don’t forget gloves! Some people are allergic to latex, so consider nitrile gloves. You can find them anywhere, even Costco.

  Of course, you’ll need suture material. A good all-purpose suture material for skin would silk, which is permanent and must be removed later. Other permanent materials include Prolene, Nylon, and Ethibond. There are other suture materials that are absorb-able such as chromic (“catgut”) which disappears after 2-3 weeks and Vicryl, which disappears after 6 weeks or so. These are best used on deeper layers. Suture material comes in various thicknesses. 0, 2-0, 3-0, 4-0, 5-0 and 6-0 being most commonly used in humans. 0-Silk is thickest, with 6-0 Silk very fine for use in delicate cosmetic work. The heavier suture has more strength, but the finer suture leaves less of a scar. For purposes o practice, try 2-0, 3-0 or 4-0.

  Of course, you’ll need something to stitch together. I have used pig’s feet, chicken breast, orange peel, and even grape skin (for delicate work) as a medical student and none are exactly like living human skin. Pig’s feet are a little firm, but if you can suture those, human skin will be a snap!

  For the following, refer to the figures below and/or access my YouTube video called: Practical Suturing.

  Place your pig’s foot (the training substrate) on a level surface after defrosting it and washing it thoroughly. Put your gloves on. You will then paint the area to be sutured (this is called the “skin prep”) with a betadine 2% solution or other antiseptic. Alcohol may be used if no other antiseptic is available. Shaving a particularly hairy area prior to painting may be indicated. Next, you will isolate the “prepped” area by placing a sterile drape. The drape will usually have an opening in the middle for the area to be sutured, which is called the “surgical field”.

  Assuming your patient is conscious, you would want to numb the area with 1% or 2% lidocaine solution (if you can get it, it’s by prescription). Use an alcohol wipe on the end of the bottle, then fill a small syringe with air. Inject the air into the bottle, and the local anesthetic will fill the syringe. Place an injection at a 45 degree angle to the skin, and then inject enough to form a raised area on each side of the laceration (see figure 3). Within a few minutes, the area will be numb. If you lack lidocaine, you can apply an ice cube to the area to be sutured until sensation decreases.

  Now, open your suture package and use your needle holder to grasp the needle therein. Remove it and the attached “string” from the package. Now adjust the curved needle on the needle holder so that it is perpendicular to the line of the instrument. If you are holding the needle holder in your right hand, the sharp end of the needle should point to your left. For the best command of the suture, the needle should be held at the midpoint of the curve.

  Now take your forceps (tweezers) and grasp the edge of the laceration near where you wish to place the stitch. Insert the suture needle at a 90 degree angle to the skin and drive it through that side of the laceration with a twist of the wrist. Release the needle and re-clamp it on the inside of the wound and pull it through. Replace the needle on the needle holder and, going from the inside of the wound, drive the needle with a twist of the wrist through the skin on the other side of the laceration. Pull the string through, leaving a 3 inch length for knot tying.

  There are various ways to tie your knot, but the method that saves the most suture material (this is meant for collapse situations, after all), is the Instrument Tie. Placing the needle holder over the wound, wrap the long end of the string once or twice around the end of the needle holder.

  Open the needle holder end slightly and carefully grab the very end of the 3 inch length.

  Then clamp and pull it through the loops tightly to form a knot.

  Repeat this knot 3 or 4 times per stitch. Finally, grasp the two ends and cut the remaining suture material ¼ inch from the knot.

  Place each subsequent suture about ½ inch apart from the previous one.

  It’s important to tighten your knots only enough to close the wound. Excessive pressure from a knot that is too tight will prevent healing in the area of the suture. You can identify sutures that are too tight easily. They will cause an indentation in the skin where the string is. To finish your suture job, paint it once again with betadine solution and cover with gauze and tape. Monitor the progress of the wound closely.

  To be successful in treating lacerations or other soft tissue injuries, you must be able to: 1) decide when it is better to close a wound than leave it open, 2) correctly place the sutures when they are indicated, and 3) provide close follow-up of the treated injury to assure complete healing. If you can do all 3 of the above, you will be a medical asset to your family or group.

  Next issue; we will take up the matter of point #3 above:The skillful evaluation and treatment of the healing wound.

  Dr. Bones is a retired physician, surgeon and obstetrician with 25 years experience in patient care. Along with his wife, “Nurse Amy” Alton, he co-hosts the “Doom & Bloom Hour” on the Preparedness Radio Network. Their goal is to promote medical preparedness, and to identify strategies that will keep people healthy in a post-apocalyptic setting.

  Additional Photo Credits: Photo 1, Source: http://www.med.uottawa.ca/, Photo 2, Source: http://www.thesun.co.uk/

  Organizing Survival Preparation

  Is Your Family OnBoard?

  by Jerry Ahern

  It seems to me that there is some degree of difference between a “survivalist” and a “prepper.” Let’s say that in order to be prepared for a fire in your home, you undertook extensive training in how to put out fires and possess your own fire truck, helmet, boots and other gear, you’re a fireman. That may or may not be your job, but you are a fireman. If, on the other hand, you merely bought a couple of fire extinguishers and took five minutes to read up on how they’re used to combat a fire, you are not a fireman, but merely someone who is exercising a modest amount of caution. In either case, you’ll hopefully be able to deal with the fire. A true survivalist lives and breathes that ethos. But, a true prepper may or may not. Prepping can be undertaken in degrees. Whether you choose to use the label “survivalist” or “prepper,” your goal is the same: Get through whatever hard times may be over the horizon.

  To some people, the word “survivalist” carries with it a great deal of baggage, perhaps the concept of the lone wolf trekking into the hinterlands and living like the mountain men of the early 19th Century. “Prepper” sounds less intimidating to the uninitiated. So, you’re a prepper and you want to interest reluctant members of your nuclear (immediate) family in the importance of preparing to be as self-reliant as might prove necessary if or when something awful happens. One could be looking at anything from a serious storm, the temporary after effects of which might last for days or weeks or longer, to the total disintegration of society because of anything from a natural disaster of Biblical proportions, to an EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) attack, to a pandemic, to complete financial collapse of the United States. The possibilities for disaster are, sadly, legion.

  In a nuclear family, even if a spouse sees no point in being a prepper, it is still quite possible to get at least some co-operation. Perhaps a spouse views firearms and firearms training as repugnant. With time -- or when catastrophe strikes – you may well be able to patiently or – out of necessity – quite abruptly see a change of opinion.

  Budgetary considerations must always be taken into account. If the family is having trouble making the mortgage payment or rent each month, it will be all but impossible to convince a reluctant spouse that you absolutely need a generator. The prepper may have to make some sac
rifices in order to get higher ticket gear without precipitating a divorce. For example; selling off a few valued (but unnecessary) possessions may bring you the cash needed for the generator acquisition, and might very well convince a reluctant spouse that this is a very serious matter to you. If the prepper has nothing to sell in order to secure that necessary higher ticket item, a first or second part-time job might be called for, assuming one can be found in our current economic climate.

  In a nuclear family, caring non-preppers – once it is realized you take this very, very seriously and have undertaken pre-planning for their benefit – will at least “humor” you. If you find that attitude less than pleasant, so what? If it gets the results you desire, that’s the important thing.

  Prepping is undeniably practical, except to those who totally resist the idea from an irrational basis. After all, what’s wrong with having a little extra food around? If you have an emergency expense – the water heater goes on the fritz, for example – that extra food could prove pretty good to have when you’re going through a lean month financially, or should unemployment strike.

  It must be remembered that there will always be persons who refuse – for whatever reason – to prepare for unpleasant contingencies and will look at you and other preppers as being crazy or stupid or a dangerous nut ball – or, all of the above. If someone you care about fits into this category - someone you will not abandon under any circumstances - you are left with no choice but to plan around this person or persons. More than likely, the unbeliever will be a part of your extended family. You must bite the bullet here. Assess the unbeliever’s needs and include these items in what you put away – guns to food to toilet paper. Failing that, you can turn this unbeliever into someone willing to at least make some preparations. On the plus side, if/when the “pizza hits the fan,” along with having the pleasure of saying “I told you so!” you’ll also be able to display your boundless magnanimity!

  In my recent book; “SURVIVE! The Disaster, Crisis and Emergency Handbook”, (2010; F-W Pubs/Gun Digest Books), I use the example of a visiting female relative. She only comes to stay with you occasionally and stays for a few days or a week at most; but, you must include her in your planning. After all, what if when “Aunt Sadie” comes to visit happens to coincide with a disaster? And, that’s not a left-handed slap at visiting relatives. Planning must also include non-human members of the family, whenever possible. And, that’s not a slap at visiting relatives, either, but a reminder about pets.

  There are numerous planning steps that must be taken, of course, for the nuclear family. If the extended family is to be included in prepping plans, responsibilities and possibilities are expanded. There is strength in numbers and no one person or single nuclear family can possess each and every skill set that might prove useful in an emergency situation. But, a group can approach this.

  Getting your neighborhood or your community involved is the best option, but more so than within the nuclear or the extended family. Doing so must be carefully finessed, because of the variety of personalities and viewpoints that will be involved. Don’t come on so strongly that you turn people off. You may see the United States and European economies all-but zeroing out any day now. Right or wrong, telling that to a group of people new to the concept of prepping, people who prefer MSNBC to FOX News, who wouldn’t own so much as a Red Ryder BB gun, who believe killing a deer is tantamount to murder, is an instant defeat.

  Push the idea of natural disasters – tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzard conditions, etc. Wouldn’t it be great if each of the families in your subdivision inventoried what supplies they had on hand, which might prove useful in such an event? That way, finances permitting, some of these families may see it as a good idea to buy that generator and split the cost, to plant an extra large vegetable garden and share the work, to buy up large amounts of certain canned goods when they’re on sale, etc.

  Just as each sufficiently mature member of the nuclear family will have specific responsibilities in a crisis situation, so too can persons who are part of your neighborhood or community, however that is defined. Along with a physical inventory to determine what supplies are on hand and what might be needed, a skill set inventory can also be undertaken. Is there a physician or dentist, a nurse or dental hygienist, a carpenter or blacksmith or early child care specialist living in your neighborhood? Just think for a moment what these skills could mean in the event of a societal breakdown.

  Other skills sets must be developed, learned and well-practiced. The most basic abilities any outdoorsman will take for granted are totally alien to large segments of the population. And society as a whole has become so dependent on technology that in its absence, many persons would be totally lost. Unless all your extended family, friends and co-workers are like-minded and take prepping seriously, you probably know people who don’t own a non-electric can opener, never use cash and let their vehicles get to the running-on-fumes stage before tanking up.

  Make planning fun! This should be a mantra whenever more than one person is involved in prepping. At the nuclear family level – especially when young children and/or teenagers are involved – every effort should be undertaken to make planning, training to master useful skills and putting up supplies as happy an experience as possible. Make it a game. If everything is allowed to become somber and dreary, who’s going to want to be involved with it? Your goal is to make the very best of a bad situation. So, keep that in mind when dealing with the nuclear and extended family. Nowhere is this more important, however, than when moving out of the comfort zone of family and close friends and trying to work with the immediate neighborhood and possibly the community at large.

  Your neighborhood may consist of X-number of apartments in a high rise or packed together houses in an older area of a large city or in a suburb. It may also be all the farms or ranches in a particular valley, etc. Extending beyond that is certainly desirable, if practical.

  Just as nuclear families will meet to discuss appropriate measures concerning equipment, supplies and other aspects of planning, there should be co-ordination at the extended family level and at the neighborhood or community level. Just as when you first began to prep you tried to determine where to start and very likely made some choices that turned out less well than you would have wished, bringing your expertise to others and sharing with them what you have learned should not be expected to go perfectly smoothly or anywhere close to that. Yet, if you approach what you’re doing with good intentions and are just as willing to laugh at yourself as laugh at others, you’ll be moving forward in achieving your goals.

  Even before introducing the concept of supply, equipment and personal skill set inventories, make certain to help your extended family and your neighborhood or community to understand why you – you, as an individual prepper – feel that prepping is of vital importance. Still try to keep it light and endeavor not to frighten people, but rather to educate them. Don’t be a know-it-all lecturer, but rather a helpful guide.

  You can start with these facts and elaborate on the scenarios they might present. Historically speaking, Republics have a lifespan of not much more than two hundred years. We’re very possibly on borrowed time.

  The global economy is so closely interwoven that it has become frighteningly vulnerable.

  Certain natural disasters, for which there can be little if any effective preparation at the governmental level, will certainly happen in the future just as they have occurred in the past, the only question being ”When?” These include the eruption of the caldera under Yellowstone National Park, “big ones” along the San Andreas and New Madrid fault lines, comet or near Earth object impact, etc.

  All of the above disasters will not just exert a powerful influence on a portion of humankind, but on all of humankind. There will be no place to go where the effects of such disasters will not be severely felt. And, the after effects of such events will be long lasting, at best.

  You must convince people of two things: there is not
hing bad about preparing; and, given the opportunity, not having prepped – even just in the most basic ways -- is all but tantamount to accepting death over life. It’s potentially suicidal.

  Those of us blessed enough to be born into present day western civilization, with all its safety nets, conveniences and protections, are also its victims, because of the dependency it fosters. We must learn self-reliance, then go forth and preach it, seeking converts wherever possible. Think of it as saving lives.

  Jerry Ahern is a long-time survivalist and writer, most well known for his post-apocalyptic fiction series: “The Survivalist”, as well as his non-fiction work: “CCW: Carrying Concealed Weapons” and “SURVIVE! The Disaster, Crisis and Emergency Handbook”. Jerry is also a regular writer for such magazines as: Guns & Ammo, Handguns and Gun World.

  The Night The Lights Went Out

  by Doug Bell

  According to the song, the lights went out in Georgia, but no matter where you are, when the lights go out it can either be a minor inconvenience or a major problem, depending on what actually happened and if you are prepared for it. The first thing to do is try to find out if this is an actual emergency or if it is just a minor problem. If there is a storm going on and you can look out and see lights on in another part of town, it is probably a minor problem. If you look out and see most of the town is on fire, that is probably a major problem.