Heading offshore on an extended voyage? While outfitting the boat with spare parts, your medical kits should be at the top of your priority list. The kit I’m talking about is far more extensive than that lunchbox-size first-aid kit you have stuffed below.
Your kit needs to contain medications, surgical supplies and instruments, antibiotics, sutures, splints and monitoring devices. You’ll need to measure blood pressure, heart rate and body temperature to tell you about the injured patient’s condition. Medical teams ashore will want this information when you call.
Also, your ship’s library needs a copy of Wilderness and Rescue Medicine, 6th Edition, by Jeffrey Isaac, PA-C and David Johnson, MD.
Along with these tools and supplies will come printed instructions, but hands-on training in the use of the equipment is far more valuable than the equipment itself. You’ll also need to establish the means of forwarding diagnosis information to the shore-based physician. Skill in treating wounds, burns, lacerations, dehydration, food poisoning and infections need to be learned and practiced.
David Lyman
