Lone Star Medics- Medic I-- A course for everyone.
First off, I'd like to throw out a huge thanks to Caleb at Lone Star Medics for giving me the opportunity to take this course. He's a hugely awesome person, and has definitely done a ton to help me out. This article, such as it is, covers my experiences while taking his Medic I course.
I guess I should give a little background as to who I am. I'm not some salty seen-it-all medic, former soldier, combat ninja. I've never been shot at, or for that matter had anyone seriously attempting to end my life in any matter. I'm just a guy. I've always thought of myself as a fairly capable person. I know my way around firearms, I shoot competitively, I have my CHL and use it every day, I'm big on the outdoors, camping, survival skills etc. and I hang out with a lot of "been there, done that" types. (Woo.) I must say, that Caleb's course taught me more in one day, than I've learned in years. Medic I, at its heart is a basic first aid course. It covers many medical skills needed to address wounds and injuries a person may see in day to day life. While Caleb's company is well known for their tactical medicine courses, (I can't wait to take medicine x) this is not one of them. That said, whether you're a high speed operator or a stay at home mom, this course likely has some things you should know in it.
Introductions were brief, Caleb telling us all a little about himself, and all the class members giving their names and a bit of their backgrounds. I'm glad for this, as all members of the course had a shooting background of some sort, and Caleb was able to tailor this particular medic I course in that direction to an extent.
After introductions, in any course, usually a person expects to jump right into the meat of whatever it is you're there to learn, for me, I was looking forward to play with tourniquets and learn to treat a gun shot wound. (Real macho stuff, right?) The reality of the course was much different, but for very good reasons. Caleb is HUGELY emphatic upon a person having a good situational awareness. The first thing he had the entire class do is leave the room and shut the door. After a bit, we would return and assess a "scene" that had been prepared. What we saw varied, but every scenario had some hazard involved. The point of this little exercise is to show that while a responder may have the best intentions to help someone, they absolutely must watch after themselves first. To do otherwise is to leave an opening to become another casualty.
From here on, we moved quickly. Tourniquets and the proper usage thereof were addressed first, and we moved onto pressure bandages quickly thereafter. Fractures, Triangle bandages, Hemostatic agents, permanent and temporary wound cavities, puncture wounds, gun shot wounds, lacerations, sucking chest wounds, and quite a few other topics were covered, as well as how to deal with them. I can go on and on about the things I learned about each item on the list, but if you really want to know, google them. The real value of this course came towards the end where Caleb put us through scenario training. We took all that we learned and applied it in simulated situations. One scenario involved a hit and run victim with a fractured leg. Another involved a mugging victim with a knife in his abdomen. While its easy to put on a pressure bandage when you're in a classroom just practicing, having to dig through a medical kit while assessing wounds and trying to be snappy about it can be difficult. Obviously, no training can make up for real world experience, but Caleb did a great job of applying pressure and modifying the scenarios to challenge us all, as well as addressing the things that we did well, and the things that could be improved upon.
By the time scenario training was done, we were winding down and went back to the classroom to talk about what we had learned. To be honest, not much dialogue at this point was needed. Caleb was great about addressing any questions that came up from start to finish and presented his material in a very easy to understand format. I highly recommend this course to anyone and everyone. We can't all be combat medics, and that's okay. With a little help through courses like this one though, you might just save your own, or someone else's life.
Caleb and the instructors at LSM offer so many other courses, and are well known for their tactical medicine courses like medicine x, which has been reviewed by the guys over at MilSpec Monkey and ITS tactical. If you want to know more about them, head over to their facebook page or check them out over at lonestarmedics.com. While I did not have a camera for this course, I'm trying to get photos from those who did. If I can, I will post photos in the near future.
