Don't Panic!!
You wake up with a blinding
headache and blood running down the side of your face. Where are you and what
happened? Or, you just shot a beautiful 10-point Buck during an out of town
hunting trip, and you suddenly look up to see darkness is already falling and
you are alone. Or, maybe your canoe overturns crossing some rapids, and you
struggle to make your way towards shore while all your gear floats away.
In each of these scenarios, you are
faced with a possible life or death situation, where what you do next may be
the key to whether you survive or not in the hours and (possibly) days ahead.
Some will think nothing is wrong and that they are sure that they can make
their way back without trouble. Only later to find themselves completely lost. Some
may actually panic at the thought that they are totally alone in the deep
wilderness and that they could die. Many people will actually run hither and
yawn into the wilds about them until they are really lost. And finally, there
are those who carefully consider all options, plan a course of action, and then
stick to the plan until help arrives or they self-rescues by their own hands.
This last way can be seen on the news almost every night, as crews are rescued
after weeks at sea, a man walks out of the frozen wilds to save his family, or
the woman who lost her way on a hiking day trip survives for many days by
finding available food in the waters and plants about her. All of these
scenarios are based on true stories which took place within the last few months,
and are noteworthy for that very fact; they all survived almost impossible odds.
One story that didn’t make the news,
but is worthy of note, is of a man who in September of 2009, was camping far
from civilization in the deep woods of Northern Minnesota. After several days
of wonderful peace and restful sleep, the man woke up to find a cold, damp rain
was falling and his campfire had consumed the last of his dry firewood. So, he
picked up his chainsaw and walked a short distance down the trail to where he
had seen a dry fallen tree that he could easily cut up and spilt for firewood.
Seeing nothing to stop him but a deep mat of wet leaves, he faced the trail and
started up the saw, goosed it a time or two to warm it up, and turned left and
stepped forward to start the cut. Unbeknownst to him was a tree root that was
hidden in the leaves, and as he stepped forward, his right foot tripped on it.
Immediately the leg collapsed, and he started to fall, he instantly decided to
throw the buzzing chainsaw away from him so as not to fall on it. But in doing
so, his body turned, and he fell more towards his left side, which made it
impossible to use his hands to break his fall. When his head was about 14
inches above the ground, the top of his head impacted the side of a tree, and
he was shocked to hear bones snapping in his neck as his head was driven
straight back towards his shoulders.
Deeply stunned by the impact, he laid
for several moments until his thoughts cleared and then realized the full depth
of the disaster in front of him. For one, he was deep into the woods that
required a walk back to the campsite itself, then a four wheel ATV, and finally
a four wheel drive truck to just reach the nearest road. All of this ran
through his mind as he lay on the cold wet ground with the rain falling on the
side of his face. Next he thought of what would be needed for someone to come
and rescue him, and the number of minutes, hours, even days before anyone would
realize he was out of touch and decided to check up on him. Reaching the bottom
of that train of thought, he knew that he would die of exposure long before
anyone would come looking for him. Next, he tried moving just his fingers and
arms to see what he had available to him. They moved but with considerable pain
that was only matched by the pain that with being created by the bones and
muscles of his neck. Another check showed that he had movement in his legs as
well! Thank God!
Slowly, moving only an inch at a
time, he fought his way to a sitting position with his back to a tree. The
unsupported side of his neck was terrible; even so, if he did not try to turn
his head he could endure it. Gaining determination to survive, he thought about
the phone in his pocket. Because he was so far from a cell tower, he knew that
he would have to stand on his wooden deck and raise the phone above his head to
call anyone. This was now impossible due to the damage in his neck, which did
not allow him to reach up that high. Taking a minute, he could see a tree
branch lying next to him on his left side (he could only look left) and
reaching out, used it to turn off his chainsaw. Quiet quickly returned, as he
thought through all the steps needed to call 911 on his cell and the time it
would take for anyone to arrive to help him. This quickly turned to hours due
to a number of factors, like wilderness travel, location coordinates being
unknown, and the needs of the rescuers to enable them to reach him. If only he
could reach the river nearby!
So after lying there for nearly an
hour, the man used just his legs to push himself to a standing position and
carefully walked back to his campsite where his dog, Maggie was happy to see
him. Moving only his body, he tore open the dog food bag and got additional
water for the water bowl; he had realized that the dog could starve to
death before another would find her. All of this movement and weight lifting
was terrible but necessary for both of their peace of mind. The man then walked
over to his ATV and bracing himself; he climbed aboard. Everything went black
for several minutes before he could reach over and start the heavy machine.
Then he began what he later described his “16-point turn” to get the ATV turned
around and headed down the trail he had cut only yesterday. At one point in the
trip back to his Ford truck, he had to stop, reach down and pull each leg up to
rest on the wheel well in order to cross a largely flooded area. Again, a very
painful event.
Reaching his truck, he parked the
ATV and started up the truck in order to reach the road still more than two
miles away. Again he performed a 16-point turn (normal is 3!) and made his way
through the woods until he stopped by the two lane blacktop road about 30 miles
east of Baudette, Minnesota. Finally, he could make a call for help but to whom?!
Again he figured time, distance, and need for rescue. Deciding to call his wife
over 450 miles away (you never know!) he told her of his accident and asked
what he should do. Stay there or go?
The nearest EMT was 30 miles away
and could take well over than an hour to response if they were busy already. Or
he could drive carefully to Baudette himself, limiting his speed and movement
to what was totally in his control. Here, a normal person would have waited
until help appeared, but he had already rescued himself against impossible odds,
and his physical condition was changing for the worse.
The man could already feel the
muscles in his shoulders and neck swelling, making it harder to breathe, and he
could no longer swallow as his throat was swelling shut, as well. So he was
drooling slightly down the side of his face. He might not have that hour to
wait! Telling his wife to call 911 in Baudette to have the ambulance there to
met him at the grocery store in town; he put on his truck emergency flashers
and pulled slowly onto the highway. Never going over 30 mph, he drove to the
local food store and parked with his flasher still on. After almost twenty
minutes, he heard them drive up, to the front of the store! This was too much!
Getting out, he walked up to the ambulance and told them he was the pickup.
“My God, he’s walking!!” someone
shouted out. Later the man could only say high praise for the crew as they stayed
with him through the ER, aided in positioning him for the CT-Scan, and helped to
cut off his clothes when needed.
“My God, look at that! He tore
every muscle in his neck! He should be dead!” Were the comments both during the
CT-Scan and later by the local doctor. As the man had broken the C-2 Sinuous
Process bones on the right side of his neck, chipped the C-3 vertebrae in front
(which made his throat swell ), and crashed every disc in his neck. The C-2 vertebra,
located in the neck, is the same one Christopher Reeves broke, and it sits
right at the base of the head and supports the heavy skull above it. A large
percentage of C-2 fractures are fatal. Today, this man is still alive because
he took to time to STOP, SIT, and THINK about his survival. He didn’t panic! And
even when he had reached a rescue point, he made another life or death decision;
which was later credited in saving his life as the doctor stated that he would
have died because of the swelling in his throat if he had waited.
The time taken to drop to one knee,
clear your mind, and think slowly of every possible option you may have, is
worth every kiss from a loved one once you get safely home again. Rushing into
the darkness can leave you more miles from safety than when you started. And,
trying to swim after your gear as it floats away will expose you to
hypothermia, drowning and death. But, what about the man who was found walking
out of the wilderness for help? Well that man had stayed and aided his family
when their car overturned during a sledding trip. To keep warm, they burned a
tire for heat overnight and shared body warmth. This family was lucky, as just
like the man in the story, they had not left word where they were going, when
they would be back, and exact instructions on how to find them in case of an
emergency.
This is not about Bug-Out-Bags and
what you should carry with you at all times. It is about a mental process by
which to aid in surviving a disaster, while it is happening, and what steps you
should do to come out alive on the other side. Stop doing anything, sit down or
kneel until you need to move again, and after taking a few deep breaths, think
about everything you passed reaching that point. Think about passing that
strange rock or tree; remember your steps as you walked along a pretty part of
the trail. Think about how to get back the last place you remember clearly. Then
think about where to go next. Was the Sun on the right or the left; was the
trail open or steep? And so on. An excellent example of this bcan be found in
Will Smith’s new movie, “After Earth (2013)”, in which he instructs his son to
calm down, “take a knee” and think about his situation. Later, on his own,
Will’s son uses this technic to solve a problem during a life or death scenario
to save them.
For the wet traveler, forget the
gear and think about getting warm and dry! Take everything off and do pushups
or jumping jacks until you feel a little warmer. Ring out your clothes as best
you can, beating them against the rock, if necessary, to remove the water, and
lay them out to dry. While everything is drying, try your best to start a fire!
Here I would carry a lighter on a cord around your neck to aid in doing so.
Flint and steel are fun, but you could die before you get a spark going.
All these steps can save your life
if you don’t panic! How do I know? I was the guy that broke his neck in the
Northern Woods of Minnesota in 2009. Having said that, I hope you can learn how
to survive with a little luck and to learn not to panic.
About the Author
I have been a number of
things in my life to include USAF Security Police Officer, Photo Intelligence
Specialist, Nuclear Weapons Targeteer as a member of the Joint Strategic Target
Planning Staff (JCS/JSTPS) in the Regan years, and Amateur Radio Emergency
Services (ARES) Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC) State of Minnesota,
American Red Cross Disaster Services Instructor/Mass Care Specialist, NRA
Firearms Instructor, and BCA Minnesota Permit to Carry
Instructor to name just a few. But through all of this I have been a
survivalist and a prepper, and I have used my skill sets to
actually survive a number of life challenging situations where my only hope of
survival was saving me.
I
currently live with my wife and too many cats and dogs off grid in Mountain
View, MO. I can be reached at DFranck@aol.com My
Facebook page at DonaldFranckBooks. And on Twitter at @dfranck1.
