I started the weekend of June 2-3, 2018 in a coma. Revived an hour later I then had a basilar skull fracture with “Battle’s Sign” (bruising of the mastoid bone behind the left ear) and a lumbar fracture.

As Monty Python would say “She turned me into a newt … but I got better”.

Undaunted and fully recovered, I then had a complete left femur fracture requiring a traction splint fashioned from an oar. The next day I had a left humerus fracture, right leg laceration, and dehydration, again recovered. Hey, I must be Deadpool!

Ah, more likely I was taking a 19 hour, two-day Wilderness First Aid course at Rockwood Park in Chesterfield County through SOLO and led by Matt Rosefsky. Now you would think that a physician in continuous practice for 40 years would have no need for a first aid course.

Wrong.

All my medical training was in hospitals and offices. Yes, I spent four years working in emergency rooms but I had the full support of staff, x-ray, lab, orderlies, and specialists in a clean, well-lit environment. Medical school did not expose us to the real world outside the doors. I got the work of EMTs delivered to me on a gurney. In later years, I saw plenty of bumps, bruises, lacerations, sprains, strains, and fractures in the office but sent anything severe to the hospital and all fractures went to an orthopedist. An ambulance was always minutes away. Figuring out whether someone sitting against a tree eight miles up a trail has a spine injury was not on the agenda.

It should be. 

I wish I had Wilderness First Aid certification BEFORE going to medical school. Filling in the holes of the swiss cheese.