My daughter fell from her horse this week-end during a barrel race and we spent over 12 hours in hospitals (she was transported to a city hospital from the small town we were in) seeing if she had a serious neck injury. She has bruised and swollen ligaments and muscles in her neck, but she will be fine. As the orthopedic surgeon that treated her pointed out, right now people in the US generally have access to good medical care and my thought is that maybe we are a little spoiled because of it.

This led me to thinking about neck collars, splints of all types and sizes (from the metal ones for fingers, to the air casts for ankles, braces for elbows, knees, etc). We have a collection due to my daughter being so very athletic and everything that goes with it, but most people wouldn't. Some of these things you can buy over-the-counter, but others need a "prescription" to get.

A neck collar could prevent something more serious even without immediate medical help. An air cast can be substituted for a plaster cast in an emergency. While I am not saying we need to become our own doctors, the possibility does exist that medical help may not be immediately available.

If you must make a trip to the emergency room or your doctor in an emergency, pay attention to what they are doing. Take a first responders class or first level paramedic classes. Definitely take CPR and first aid classes offered by local hospitals and the Red Cross.

Get books on first aid, childbirth, anatomy, etc. There was a list of excellent first aid books to get, but I can't find the thread.

-- Beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), August 23, 1999

Answers

even if you do have a Dr handy, if he/she doesn't have the tools to work with the Dr is also limited in the treatment. Make sure you have cardboard and duct tape. You can stabilize a whole body with that.

Taz

-- Taz (Tassie@aol.com), August 24, 1999.