SARMed

A great post about Apple iPhone sat comms from Lions Bay Search and Rescue

Sunday August 16 at 18:20 PRSAR was tasked with the rescue of an injured kayaker at Tenedos Bay, in Desolation Sound. The subject had sustained a head laceration ducking under a log while hiking in the area.

Our team accessed the location thanks to the Access Point Marine water taxi. The kayaker was transported back to Powell River by water taxi, and dropped off at the hospital for further assessment.

We thank the staff of Access Point Marine Transport for making themselves available on short notice and late in the evening to support this rescue.

Let’s talk about airway management for a minute. The last 2 days we have seen 2 different cases. One case, a complete obstruction secondary to a food bolus. Back blows and abdominal thrusts cleared the obstruction. Second case, a patient has a partial esophageal obstruction which is a very different presentation. One possible wilderness or remote treatment option, not for a complete airway obstruction to be clear, but for the partial esophageal obstruction, is a Coca Cola bolus. Studies don’t clearly define, nor understand the mechanism but the prevalent thought process is that Coke causes smooth muscle relaxation, allowing the cause of the obstruction to migrate to the stomach. Some studies say it works, others say it doesn’t. My experience has been positive. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6399995/

Yesterday I treated a patient who endured 21 bee stings. Stings were in his scalp, face, shoulders, arms and legs. Once we treated his reaction, we focused on the stingers sites. It’s important to remove the stingers in a manner that does not inject more bee venom. Bees are defensive and if they sting a human, the stingers and venom sack will be torn out and the bee will die. The venom sack can accidentally be squeezed, injecting more into the patient. I used my paramedic license card to remove each stinger, which was quite difficult in the patients hair.

Our thoughts are with Mike's family, Coquitlam Search and Rescue, and Squamish SAR as well as all others who responded. Please accept our deepest condolences and support.