{"id":39730,"date":"2016-12-15T21:29:07","date_gmt":"2016-12-16T02:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/?p=39730"},"modified":"2023-05-06T16:54:45","modified_gmt":"2023-05-06T20:54:45","slug":"preparing-for-emergencies-at-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/preparing-for-emergencies-at-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Preparing for Emergencies at Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"safety <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n There are several companies and organizations that offer comprehensive first-aid kits, such as this one from the Divers Alert Network. Another service that DAN provides is called DanBoater, an affordable medical-emergency system with paramedics on call 24\/7 on a dedicated hotline.<\/span>\n Stephen Frink<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

When I decided to sail across the Atlantic aboard Ranger, my 30-year-old Allied Seabreeze yawl, I spent a year refitting her. I slept with and dreamed about marine catalogs, and spent thousands of dollars on things to keep the boat moving and the crew aboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

A month before \u00addeparture, my first mate, a trusted, \u00adlevelheaded sailor and nurse, called with bad news. He had just been diagnosed as HIV positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Suddenly, my nightmares of a man overboard or a hole in the hull became visions of bleeding cuts, gloves, barriers, sanitation, and dealing in close quarters with a sick man still juggling his new medical cocktail. It was the first time I\u2019d thought about the health of my crew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, he elected not to go, as did my third crewman. The nurse packed a first-aid kit, and I threw it under the sink and took off with two strangers, prepared to handle anything the sea might hand us, I thought.\nBut we weren\u2019t \u00adprepared. And from everything I\u2019ve gathered, neither are most sailors who set out on extended cruises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

A sailboat is a hazardous platform in a hostile environ\u00adment. People on sailboats get cut, conked, bruised and burned, and can become nauseated, crushed, dehydrated, cold and sprained \u2014 and those are just the common problems. Sailors also bring with them an encyclopedia of pre-existing medical conditions, from obesity and age to heart disease and diabetes. All are compounded by the isolation of a vessel at sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe majority of sailors are not prepared for \u00admedical emergencies,\u201d says Dr. Miles Poor, a surgeon, offshore sailing veteran, and longtime fleet surgeon to the Caribbean 1500. Because Americans are used to a \u201c911 mindset,\u201d he says, we forget that even a mile offshore, we must be our own first responders. Yet most of us are untrained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, in 2015 in U.S. waters, 5,560 boats were involved in accidents with injuries or deaths. Only five \u2014 five! \u2014 of the skippers involved had American Red Cross first-aid training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople get drawn toward gadgets: Do I have the right sails? Do I have the right navigation tools? That\u2019s great. But we need to think through the medical side of things, too. Is my first-aid kit appropriate? Do I know how to use it? Do I know what is in it?\u201d says Dr. Jeffrey Wisch, a sailor, hematologist, and oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and the fleet surgeon of the Cruising Club of America, which runs the Newport Bermuda Race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

One study of transatlantic sailors by a French physician found that half of them waited until the final month prior to departure to think about a first-aid kit. Fifteen percent didn\u2019t deal with it until two weeks before setting sail, reports David Hayes, a University of Quebec chiro\u00adpractic professor and sailor who teaches seminars for the World Cruising Club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Hayes\u2019 own survey of hundreds of sailors in the World Cruising Club\u2019s rallies indicates that 65 percent wait until the last month to get any first-aid training. He remembers vividly, three days before departing the Canaries for the Caribbean, being approached on the docks by a mother. \u201cCan you recommend a good first-aid book?\u201d she asked. She was about to set off for at least 20 days at sea with her \u00adhusband and children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"safety <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Hands-on medical training aboard a yacht, such as that offered by the Fowey Maritime Centre in the United Kingdom, is an excellent way to learn the basics in real-world situations.<\/span>\n Fowey Maritime Center<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s an emergency, you won\u2019t have time to pick up a book,\u201d Hayes says. \u201cThere are steps you need to take, that you need to be trained for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Medical experts can ruin your daydreams with accounts of offshore emergencies: fingers cut off by fishing line, then cauterized in a frying pan in the middle of the Indian Ocean; a painful, untended dislocated shoulder during 15-foot waves from Hurricane Mitch; a mid-Atlantic lurch that knocked a sailor into a winch and left him brain-dead; a Gulf Stream chin laceration that required 12 sutures from Wisch \u2014 each stitch timed between waves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Cruisers also explore exotic and primitive places. Daniel Nord, director of medical services for the Divers Alert Network, which reviews 5,000 calls for help a year, lists three pieces of advice: 1) Don\u2019t rent a motor scooter, 2) don\u2019t pet the monkey, and 3) don\u2019t ride the elephant! He\u2019s half-joking, of course, but there\u2019s a lesson in there, too. Common sense can go a long way toward preventing mishaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Two people have died in 30 years of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, both after being struck in the head by a boom. But the most common injuries have been galley cooking burns, followed by rope burns (some down to the bone), cuts, punctures from fishhooks and knives, and many blunt traumas \u2014 bruises, bumps and broken bones \u2014 caused by falling around the boat, says Jeremy Wyatt, World Cruising\u2019s director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

There are many easily learned first-aid techniques that cruising sailors can master: taking vital signs, treating burns, making splints and stopping bleeding. \u201cFirst-aid training has prevented a bad situation from becoming worse,\u201d says Wyatt. \u201cEight years ago, one sailor broke his arm and suffered a puncture wound. The crew had the perfect dressing and splint, and thought about where to put the sailor, in a bunk where he couldn\u2019t move. That was a well-prepared crew.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

The vast majority of the 2,613 injuries and 626 deaths reported by the Coast Guard in 2015 were preventable. Drinking alcohol and not wearing a PFD were often contributing factors. \u201cThe first thing that goes onto a boat is a full cooler,\u201d says Vann Burgess, the Coast Guard\u2019s senior recreational-boating safety specialist. \u201cPeople never expect to enter the water. Any sailor should be wearing a life jacket. It will keep you alive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Most problems can be prevented or treated with some training and common-sense forethought: simple stuff like hygiene, hydration, adequate sleep, seasickness pills, wearing shoes and gloves, and wearing a clipped-in PFD. First-aid kits should contain supplies that a crew can use. A suture or IV kit is useless without training. But you can use suture strips, and knowing just a little anatomy will help describe symptoms when you call for help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

As much as I pride myself on CPR and defibrillator training, I have learned that offshore, it might help in a drowning or shock but would not likely save a cardiac arrest, because of the need for follow-up meds. The $2,000 spent on an automatic external defibrillator \u201ccould be better spent on first-aid training,\u201d says Wisch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cSailors think about doomsday scenarios on their boats,\u201d says Hayes, \u201cbut appendicitis can happen to anyone, and that\u2019s life-\u00adthreatening. They need to be prepared for anything. The statistics say anything can and will happen.\u201d\nMiles Poor tells his offshore classes: \u201cIn an hour, I\u2019m not going to try to make you a doctor. But I want to make you realize that if you ask questions and can relay symptoms, you can go safely offshore, never have an issue, and have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Transatlantic veteran Jim Carrier is a former award-\u00adwinning journalist for The Denver Post and the author of The Ship and the Storm, a riveting account of the loss of the 282-foot schooner Fantome during Hurricane Mitch in 1998.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For many cruising sailors, first-aid training and preparation are afterthoughts, but they should be at the top of the to-do list before heading offshore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35372,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Jim Carrier","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"20161215","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"164","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"For many cruising sailors, first-aid training and preparation are afterthoughts, but they should be at the top of the to-do list before heading offshore.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Preparing for Emergencies at Sea %%sep%% %%sitename%%","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"A2LC6VGZG2EXJGI2RMJSMSDXRY","arc_website_url":"preparing-for-emergencies-at-sea\/","custom_permalink":"preparing-for-emergencies-at-sea\/","arc_subtype":"right-sidebar","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":0,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[164],"tags":[183,568,362,181,569,567],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39730"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}