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7/29/2019 Medics Gone Wild [PIQUE]
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FREESTITC H ES
MEDI
CSGONEWILD
Frommouth-to-mouthtoclimatechang
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&sutu
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Fall festival reviewedP.12
Kashi RichardsonP.29
VSO plays PlazaP.60
19.29
July 19, 2012 | WHISTLERS WEEKLY NEWSMAGAZINE | www.piquenewsmagazine.com
7/29/2019 Medics Gone Wild [PIQUE]
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#103-1390ALPHALAKERD., FUNCTIONJUNCTION,
WHISTLER, B.C. V0N1B1.
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Founding PublisherKATHY BARNETT
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40 EXCITEMENT, CONTROVERSY IN LONGBOARDFINALChapman capitalizes on crash to take the win
54 LESSONS FROM KEVIN FOXXComic will performat Stand Up on the Hill Friday
60VSO FOR THE CLASSICALLY CHALLENGEDThe whos and whats of the VSOs repertoire
Medics gone wildFrom mouth-to-mouth to climate change, the Wilderness Medical Society has stitched and sutured it all.
- By tobias c. van Veen
COVER: Being one of the statistics, Ive had my fair share of mishaps and rescues. Im happy to know thatthere are people out there willing to study them in the hopes of giving us statistics a fighting chance the next
time we place ourselves in danger. - J on Parris
COVERSTORY
WEEKLYFEATURES
40
30
81238405054607072
THISWeek IN PIQUE
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4 | J ul y 19, 2012 | www.piquenewsmagazine.com
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W
30Feature
MEDICSGONEWILDStory and photos bytobias c. van Veen
With the Westins rock lobster waterfall
crashing down behind us, Loren Greenway,
Chief Executive Officer of the Wilderness
Medical Society (WMS), keeps to the shade
of the Firerock patio. He fixes me with
a steady stare a gaze perfected in all
probability during his time as a Hospital
Corspman for the US Navy.This is what itmeans to be under the manic eye of a medic,
I think to myself.They see right through you
to your bones.
Greenway, who can claim more
experience than you can shake a
defibril lator at and whom
I will respectfully, under
pain of the bends, call
an elder is not
only an avid fisher,
diver, and search and
rescue enthusiast, but
a licenced Respiratory
Care Practitioner and a Masters
Fellow in Dive Medicine with a PhD in
Business Administration. Greenway hasbeen involved with the WMS for 10 years,
holding down the fort as CEO since 2008.
He and scores of other like-minded people
were in Whistler this past weekend for
the sixth World Congress on Wilderness
Medicine.
Why does this matter? Well, with his
medical interests, outdoor passions and
rescue and relief background, Greenway
epitomizes something of the spirit of the
501(c)3 charity for the public good that
is the Wilderness Medical Society.
The Wilderness Medical Society,
says Greenway, is a membership society
that people with experience or interest
in wilderness medicine can become amember of and participate in, reminding
me that hey, I too could get in on the
latex action. Anyone can sign up, be they
physicians, EMTs, guides, or just layabouts
who want to poke needles into soft and
tender bits the WMS is an open society,
focused on research, publication, and
practice, offering education and training
on all levels.
We dont treat them any different
though, says Loren of the newbies,
otherwise known as the medically
unprofessionalized, many of whom put in
the hard hours of education, training, and
examination to become FAWNs Fellows
Frommouth-to-mouthtoclimatechange,o o li a c atheWildernessMedicalSocietyhasstitched&suture
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7/29/2019 Medics Gone Wild [PIQUE]
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FeatureSTORY
of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine.
Point being that the WMS provides next-
level involvement for physicians, patrollers,
guides, firefighters, and other response
and rescue personnel, as well as an
entry-level starting point for those
intrigued in the outdoor medical
profession and/or seeking to tune uptheir survival and medical skills.
Checkout from the ERyou like it so far?
It is strange to think that our entire
medical system is based upon high-speed
ambulances carrying the unlucky to well-
stocked hospitals. What the WMS grapples
with are the hard issues of access and
survival where 911 is not an option. The
WMS is the wild outlier to a medical
establishment entrenched in urban areas;
it is the Do-it-Yourself remedy to a systemthat relies upon ready access to advanced
technologies.
Really and truly, when youre up on a
mountain somewhere, and you dont have
the ER behind you, its a really different
set of skills, says outgoing WMS President
Tony Islas, who was peacefully drinking
ice water with lemon until I showed up
and started badgering him on the patio.
He adds: It is a different skill set that we
are teaching.
Islas, who is a Family and Sports
Medicine Physician, and teaches as an
Associate Professor at the Paul L. Foster
School of Medicine in El Paso, Texas,
emphasizes that the mission of the WMSis to take any medical practitioner of
any background as well as the all-but
uneducated members of the public and
give them the kind of training that will
allow them to adapt to the demands of
outdoor emergencies or situations where
supplies and resources are scarce.
Besides learning to treat the patient in
what the WMS calls adverse environments,
wilderness medicine encompasses basic
survival and safety skills for the practitioner.
And last but not least, as Islas emphasizes,
the idea is to pass along such holistic skills to
others be it a ski patrol or Scout group. In
this sense, it is the humanitarian mission of
the WMS to diffuse medical practice beyond
hospital walls.
It doesnt really matter if you are an
OBGYN or a family physician, says Islas,
adding acronyms that most of us can only
nod unknowingly at. If you become adept
at that certain skill set, theres a place for
you in the Wilderness Medical Society.Of course, much hinges on what is
meant by that skill set, and the WMS
defines it broadly across vast spectrums
of outdoor activity from desert to dive
medicine, jungle to mountain medical,
disaster triage and relief logistics to
search and rescue. If you can imagine it
somewhere on the planet, whether its a
destitute situation (such as a hurricane) or
the outcome of a sudden act of violence
(such as terrorism), the WMS has probably
written a response manual for it. Indeed,
looking up such topics in the conference
program, I find both are more-or-less
covered. Likewise, if its the unfortunate
consequence of some gnarly, quasi-lunaticsport, the WMS probably has some kind of
training in it, if not a Fellow who has been
there, done that.
Fellowship of the Spirited Wild
Given that Whistler has no hospital and
would be utterly cut off should something
take out our access roadways a disaster
scenario compounded if the weather socks
in it would seem that the benefits of
the WMS to the valleys outdoor keeners
is clear. The WMS conceives of medicine
for the rest of the world, which is to say
most of the world a planet that, even in
its overdeveloped state, is nonetheless still
a challenging globe of all but inaccessible
wonders. And what is called wilderness
medicine in the West is more or less slang
for standard practice in the rest of theunderdeveloped world. This is medicine
without sterilized hospitals, high-end
anesthetic, prescriptions on demand, and
technological basics including electricity
which is why the WMS handles not
only backcountry and rescue scenarios, but
disaster and relief medicine, working with
NGOs and aid organizations worldwide. In
terms of medical theory and practice, the
backcountry and the so-called Third (and
Fourth) world go hand-in-hand.
le
Really and truly, when youre up on a mountain
somewhere, andyou dont have the ER behind you,
its a really different set of skills,- Tony Islas
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FeatureSTORY
So if I say that there is a spirit to the
WMS, it is clear why this is not your
usual bunch of pallid and pale doctors
shoo-shooing you for taking part in
extreme sports or giving you the evileye for going on yet another dangerous
trip to some part of the world where,
hey, all kinds of other people live just fine
all the time. These are physicians who are
also dedicated climbers, who have been
bitten by weird bugs, who have suffered
dehydration at altitude, have had their
heads and ears blown out with the bends,
and collapsed in a heap, babbling about
becoming an Incan flower god after taking
too much ayahuasca. Well, maybe not the
last one though it ispossible. These are
fun people to be around.
Its soul-regenerating to hear people
talk not only about high-altitude problems,
dehydration issues, heat issues, but hearing
them give their presentations and tellingyou about the things that they do . . . it is
very, very invigorating, says Islas, getting
a tad misty-eyed. He goes on to explain
the camaraderie experienced by WMS
members when experiencing the challenges
of fieldwork. But he also adds, significantly,
that this experience of belonging and
community also has to do with the beauty
you encounter when you are out there.
In short, nature, and a love for it, is the
common denominator of the WMS, the
silent partner in the medics go bag.
Getting wild withthe wild beauty
Any medical practitioner seeking wild
medicine must thus be a wild lover as
in a lover of the wilderness world. The
WMS membership is stocked with climbers
and divers, paddlers and alpinists, skiers
and overall backcountry addicts. These
physicians, paramedics, nurses and first
responders mix getting off in the outdoors
with everything from hyperbaric medicine
(what to do if you get the bends) to Exercise
Associated Hyponatremia (extreme sodiumloss from endurance activities).
Then theres the seminar I missed, due
to a wacky and dated schedule (trust the
WMS with field triage, but not with the
interwebz) Field Orthopaedics by
Sam Baker and Bob Quinn, otherwise
known as how to saw through bone in the
backcountry. I had this on my mind when
wandering unexpectedly into a room full of
half-undressed participants bearing unusual
tattoos, reclining on tables while the rest of
the rooms participants poked and prodded
them with ultrasound equipment.
This was interesting. The tattoos, I mean.
Tim Benge, from Goldsboro, NC, had a
mean set of tats, combining medical crosses
and snakes with a large, round circle on
his back, fairly freshly inked, that sported a
Ju-Jitsu logo. A man watching close by wasdressed in a khaki uniform that said STORM
on it Specialized Tactics for Operational
Rescue and Medicine, a unit from the
Georgia Health Sciences University and
the National Tactical Officers Association.
I wanted to see his tattoos too, but I didnt
ask. Benge, meanwhile, was having his
eyeball scanned. The clinic, I discovered, was
Ultrasound in Disaster with Teresa Wu,
which consisted of a bunch of heavy-duty
looking ultrasound machines the size of field
laptops being used to scan participants for
intraperitoneal hemorrhage, pneumothorax
detection, maternal-fetal applications and
foreign bodies.
There were a lot of foreign bodies. Atleast to me.
Tim, meanwhile, looked like he had a
Borg implant sprouting from his eye. It was
pretty cool, I must say. However, apparently I
had missed the truly awesome session the
one with the bone saw action. Mr. STORM
said I had really missed the good one that
time. We practiced cutting through bones!
said a grinning participant beside him. When
I asked about painkillers in such situations,
they all laughed. Ha ha ha. Yah right.
The other tables were engaged in the same
weird science of ultrasound, scanning insides
for defects. Wu had the most interesting
advice. Use the liver as a window, she said,
gesturing as to where to put the hand-heldultrasound scanner, keep moving it until
youre right in the meat of the liver.
This reminds me of a quote and
appropriately indescribable 3D scene from
Andy Warhols Frankenstein with Udo Keir,
but I really wont get into that. Not here,
at least.
Point being, everyone had fun, and
let me take lots of pictures. Everyone got
their old injuries scanned, and enjoyed
pointing out things that were apparently
missing, such as John Hermans gallbladder
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7/29/2019 Medics Gone Wild [PIQUE]
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FeatureSTOR
(residents of San Antonio, Texas, watch out
its on the loose).
Indeed, let us all pause for a moment
and thank the starry heavens that the green-
gown-and-scrub crowd is also into clipping
biners and/or descending into the life
aquatic because the rest of us need thesekind, overeducated, calm folks when the
seriously bad suckage hits the fan. Bite your
lip, its only bone.
But lets get back to beauty.
The WMS this year [organized] an
educational event in Nepal the Everest
Basecamp, recounts Tony, who went along
on the medical expedition that partnered
with the Himalayan Rescue Association,
raising proceeds from participation fees for
the Everest ER, a base camp hospital for
climbers founded by former WMS president
Luanne Freer in 2003. Everest ER embodies
the outreach aspects of the WMS by using
proceeds from the seasonal test-based
medical clinic to subsidize free and low-cost
health care for the Sherpa people of the
Khumbu region of Nepal.
It truly was a life-changing experience,continues Islas, clearly enraptured by his
time in the high Himalaya. It was a
beautiful experience. Life changing not
in a big way but in a little way. In the way
the people treated you, in the way the
mountains looked and the way that the
yak bells sounded and the way that the
Mani stones felt as you passed them, the
way that the prayer wheels squeaked when
you turned them its all those ways that
affects you and changes your outlook on
world issues.
Islas was one of the faculty members
on the trip, teaching 17 hours worth of
mountain medicine during lunch breaks on
the trekking trail, covering everything from
high-altitude conditions HAPE and HACE to
travellers diarrhea. To me, this combination
of education, practice and the outdoors is anexquisite introduction to what it means to be
active with an organization such as the WMS.
Then theres the next level science.
Wild Science for the FAWNS
Contrary to what we hear from our current
federal government, science can be a beautiful
thing. While on the Everest Basecamp trip,
Scott McIntosh, who is the Editor-in-Chief
of the WMS peer-reviewed publication
Wilderness & Environmental Medicine,
conducted studies in the minimum dosages
of acetazolamide, known as Diamox, to
preventatively treat Acute Mountain Sickness.He is scheduled to present his results at the
next meeting in Park City, Utah.
Indeed, the latest issue of the WMS
journal (23/2, 2012) discusses how the use of
whats called pulse oximetry monitoring
the saturation of hemoglobin to see how
much oxygen youve got in your blood
isnt as accurate at predicting altitude
sickness as many had hoped. Other pap
go on to consider genetic predispositio
for such things, which is why the Sherp
have an easier time playing soccer at 4,5
metres than us lowlanders. Then theres
paper on getting injured from marath
paddling in a canoe. No kidding. And particular interest to all of us here in t
Valley, The Epidemiology of Mountain Bi
Park Injuries at the Whistler Bike Park, Brit
Columbia (BC), Canada. Who knew th
the savage lust for dirt and air would featu
in scientific research?
This paper, carried out by a host
researchers (please buy them beers: Zacha
Ashwell, Mary Pat McKay, Jeffrey
Brubacher, Annie Gareau), digs into resear
from 2009, looking into how the downh
scene likes to destroy its limbs. Indeed, r
is somewhat high with downhill biki
the researchers conclude that injur
with significant morbidity can occ
which highlights the need for continuresearch into appropriate safety equipme
and risk avoidance measures. Of cour
risk avoidance in any sport dedicated
embracing it is a moot point, but develop
better equipment does all riders good. Deta
from the report: going over the handlebars
common; as is putting an arm out to t
side; and if youre a 20-something m
Become a mountain (wo)man
Besides the DiMM, the WMS offers an unaccredited Fellowship program. Graduatesare known as FAWNS Fellows of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine. Your next
power-up is the Masters Fellowship program, which offers specialization in a
particular discipline. Complete the Fellowship first (become a Fellow) then apply
to the Masters program.
The Fellowship requires 100 hours education in three different domains, split
between core training, an elective, and an experience component.
The Masters is a self-directed, mentored program in a specific content area,
requiring two years of work with a mentor, including the development of an
academic portfolio and a final scholarly project that is presented to a committee.
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J ohn Her man of San
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gal l b l adder wi t h cours e
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Wher e i s your gal l
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7/29/2019 Medics Gone Wild [PIQUE]
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riding in August, do take care, cause youre a
probable statistic.
The journal is an intriguing academic
publication, insofar as its reach is much
broader than one would think. Other factors
relating to human health out in the wild
are reported upon too, from the effects of
environmental changes to the increasing
commercialization of iconic peaks.
David Weber, a Mountaineering Ranger in
Denali National Park, Alaska, and a Technical
Rescue Adviser to the WMS Diploma in
Mountain Medicine program (DiMM),
comments upon the convergence of factors
that led to the nine fatalities during the 2011Denali climbing season. The editorial reflects
upon what are, I would argue, the effects
of climate change uncompromising
seasonal shifts resulting in less snow but
lower temperatures, turning snowfields
to ice and adding technical challenges to
usually easier routes along with those
of commercialization, though he avoids
pointing out what many climbers deride in
publications such as Alpinist: the increasing
Disneyfication and industrial tourism of
the backcountry. Weber does not draw
judgments, but only makes observations: the
inability to self-arrest in low-snow conditions
(i.e., to stop oneself with an ice axe), and the
fact that less-experienced parties remained
roped in terrain where self-arrest would not
be possible (thereby increasing the danger
for the rope team) led to five deaths from
climbing falls alone in 2011.
Because Everest is well known as an
over-abused peak today, it rarely sees
challenging ascents by alpinists; almost all
of its summits are made by commercial
expeditions hauling clients up established
lines along the standard route I asked Islas
what he thought of the Everest Basecamp
experience, well known to be akin to finding
oneself in one of the most beautiful places
on Earth only to discover it has been turnedinto a garbage dump. Despite valiant efforts
to clean it up, Everest itself is still strewn with
garbage. And corpses.
Those lines this year on Everest were
phenomenally long, says Islas, referring
to the practice of having all teams siege the
standard Khumbu Icefall / Hi llary Step route
at the same time. It does put people in
harms way when you do that, he explains.
I think there is an ethical issue there
weve got to say, look, at some point, weve
got to draw the line, because having that
many people on the mountain at one time
trying to summit on the same day really
causes issues.
Islas saw similar conditions as to Denali
in 2011: This was a strange year on Everest.
It was very dry. The first part of the year up
there wasnt a whole lot of snow, so there was
a lot of rockfall and it was very dangerous.
Perhaps not so strange the Himalaya
are seeing massive melt from climate change.
The title of a 2009 paper by Chinese scholars
Jianchu Xu (et. al.) is clear enough. It reads:
The Melting Himalayas: Cascading Effects of
Climate Change on Water, Biodiversity, and
Livelihoods. The paper, published in the
journal Conservation Biology(23/3), lays it outplain and simple in the abstract. Im going to
quote this here, as it matters the WMS is
very interested in the effects of the changing
environment on human health. A future
conference, WMS CEO Greenway tells me,
will be dedicated to it; Greenway also makes
the point that there is well-documented
scientific research that the glaciers on Everest
are receding, though he believes the reasons
are multi-factorial. Xu and his cohorts are
a little more on point:
Rapid reduction in the volume of
Himalayan glaciers due to climate change
is occurring. The cascading effects of rising
temperatures and loss of ice and snow
in the region are affecting, for example,water availability (amounts, seasonality),
biodiversity (endemic species, predatorprey
relations), ecosystem boundary shifts (tree-
line movements, high-elevation ecosystem
changes), and global feedbacks (monsoonal
shifts, loss of soil carbon). Climate change
will also have environmental and social
impacts that will likely increase uncertainty
in water supplies and agricultural production
for human populations across Asia.
Indeed. Which means that such climate
change is going to start and already has
started having a serious impact upon
those of us seeking to travel, especially in
areas where massive natural processes are
being rapidly altered. Here in the Coast
Range, the evidence is easy to see glaciers
have retreated significantly since the first
ascents, most notably in the Tantalus Range,
where once walkable glaciers are now nearly
impassable from the melt, the original routes
now a maze of crevasses and technicallychallenging bergschrunds.
Carnage at the Conferences
The WMS throws several conferences yearly,
with the latest having just rattled windows
in Whistler (which probably explains the
strange use of medical tubing as a unique
fashion accessory at Garfs for the past
week). The conferences have almost as
many streams as the proposed Enbridge
pipe crossing, with various subsections
holding their own pre-conferences
Dive Medicine, the Diploma in Mountain
Medicine, Disaster and HumanitarianRelief alongside a swath of panels and
speakers at the main conference, with
such endearing titles as Patient Packaging
and Transport (I always thought that
Dracula had it right ship out with a
coffin) and Surgical Airway in the Austere
Environment: Myths & Realities (myth
or reality: you can eat pine needle soup
through a hole in your neck yes or no?).
Indeed, with the latest shindig, the
WMS overran the Westin and the Hilton
for a solid five days, with seminars ranging
from the self-explanatory Bioterrorism
to a rather more opaquely titled Security
& Bug Out Kit.
As a recently infected victim of communistcarpenter ants, I was disappointed to discover
that the Bug seminar is not the ultimate
ant/mosquito defense I was hoping for,
but rather risk mitigation in the field with
development of [a] security plan for Whistler
environs, [with] preparation for unexpected
departure. This, I discovered, was cool too.
In short, if the zombie apocalypse hits and/
or the Big One shatters the tectonic plates,
sending rivers of molten lava through a fiery
village that no Tourism Whistler campaign
will ever be able to revive, this seminar
is all about buggin outta here without
wiggin out. Think survival evacuation and
long-term self-sustainability in a world
without cold beer and wine, pizza delivery,or GoogleMaps. Or oil. Or electricity.
Speaking about oil the WMS is
turning to the environment for its 2013
conference in Alabama, a State that has seen
its share of devastation from the Deepwater
Horizon fiasco of 2010. The conference
will talk about the environmental impacts
on human health.
Thats going to be a watershed
conference for us, Loren Greenway. We
are now at the end of a marathon interview
session on the patio, and he and I have both
gulped down our beers his buzzless,
mine grapefruity. Following the impacts
of the British Petroleum explosion, were
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WMS history in five stitches or less
The WMS brings medicine back to where it began: in the vast outdoors of our planet, from
caves to jungles, glaciers to forests, mountains to deserts, from search and rescue to
expedition medicine, dive to disaster medicine, wilderness trauma to wild animal attacks
(not to be confused with the trauma of a late-night cougar attack at a local dive, which can,
truth be told, be a disaster that is just the medicine you might need).
The Wilderness Medicine Society was founded in 1983 by physicians Paul Auerbach,
Ed Geerh and Ken Kizer, embodying the spirit of some outdoor-inclined California
doctors who, feeling the times, went all punk on their suburban counterparts and beganto feed the need for all-weather medicine and full-scale response in what the WMS
calls extreme situations and what we call our backyard out there in the boonies
beyond the last cell tower, with many clicks to walk or skin out, days of travel from the
remnants of our SIM-ilization. In short, just out in the middle of the Spearhead.
The WMS combines practice with publishing, with a heavy roster of annual conferences,
the peer-reviewed academic journal Wildnerness & Environmental Medicine, the Wilderness
Medicine magazine, a massive manual of how-to fix-that-broken-bit called Wilderness
Medicine (6th Edition), the Wilderness Medical Society: Practice Guidelines for Emergency
Care (nice light reading after Harry Potter), and the WMS Educational Lecture Series (fits
in well after catching up on True Blood or aging episodes of Clooney-era ER). An ongoing
series of Student Interest Groups shuttle the up-and-coming into the ranks of becoming full-
fledged enviro-addicts with a thing for splints and sutures.Indeed, environmentalism is behind the medical science too, or rather, it goes hand-
in-hand as a passion of many of the attendees. It would be hard to imagine a WMS doctor
without a burning desire for near-disaster epics, or at least, for some quality time spent
huddling in the backcountry or whipping along singletrack or white-water rafting, trekking
across the continent, whatever Point being, the WMS has a dedicated Environmental
Council, with their mission statement making it clear that WMS members love the outdoors,
[and] have deep respect for the environment and our precious natural resources. . . Given
that natural resources today are often only granted value if they can be ripped out from
the Earth and monetized for the profit of the few at the expense of the many, it is nice to
see an approach that seems some value in them great wild spaces other than untapped oil
and gas reserves (or old growth ripe for logging).
going to talk a lot about the impacts of
drilling and pollution on human health
and environmental health, he says. Its
going to be really interesting. Were going to
have the Surgeon General [of the U.S.] come
in, were going to do some actual sea lab
experimentation and observation . . . it mightprove to be one of the standing hallmarks of
the Wilderness Medical Society.
Greenway expects it to be standing room
only.
However, defining impact on human
health is not easy. We cant just focus on
ecological issues, because its just not our
focus, he adds. So somehow we have to
tie that to human health. But in that, were
going to talk about all kinds of things.
To me, this sounds like a politically coded
way of getting medical and environmental
science, as well as medical practitioners
involved in the disaster and relief scenarios
that result from climate change, involved
in the broader issues that are redefining
our ability, as the human species, to survive
on this planet. In a country as polarized
as the U.S., even taking this step would be
contentious (as it is now in Canada: all those
who oppose the Northern Gateway pipeline
are radicals funded by foreign money,according to our honourable PM).
Greenway goes on to play both sides of
the coin.
To quantify that impact [on human
health] is really difficult, Ive come to
appreciate. We all talk about the dangers
of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico but
we dont know at all that its impacted
anybodys human health. Its impacted some
birds and a couple of fish maybe, but I dont
know what its done to the humans.
Try saying this to those whose economic
health has been devastated due to the
loss of the Gulf of Mexico fishery. Entire
communities have been left impoverished.
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And to say the largest spill on record
knocked out a couple of birds seems to
underplay the extent of the damage. But
I see Greenways point which is always
the failing point of careful science. By
the time that slow and steady science has
established a definitive link between the
persistence of minute oil particles in the
water supply and, say, persistent cancer, it
can be generations too late.
This is really a new area for us, says
Greenway. Im afraid there will be a lot of
conservation interest, and not much medicalinterest, is what Im afraid of. And we dont
want to be PETA. Thats not what we do.
the problem is separating, at least for me,
separating the whack jobs from people who
are thoughtful about the impacts on human
health. Thats always been my cautious foray
into environmentalism. Theres a lot of heat
and a lot of angst and not a lot of science.
Id rather imagine a point down
the road where the Hippocratic Oath is
changed ever so slightly, to where the
physicians duty to protect the life of the
patient includes not just the one body, but
the body of the environment that nurtured
the patient into being.
Step Right Up to the MagicalMedical Mystery Tour
Out on the patio with Greenway, basking in
the sweltering waves of a climate-changed
summer, I have been lost in thought again,
paused in the middle of a question, and
thinking of the volcanic revenge we are
all due should the Great One unearth the
induction faults and all I can thinkabout is: if I had to, would I cut my arm off
with a penknife?
Greenway is from Utah, as is famed
outdoorsman Aron Ralston, who after
being trapped by a dislodged boulder in a
slot canyon for five days and seven hours,
cut off his withered and useless limb with
a dull multi-tool. The epic self-rescue was
dramatized in the flick 127 Hours, which
should all but put anyone off travelling
solo in the backcountry. Its probably one
of the few flicks I can think of that nearly
everyone at this conference has seen (and
Im certainly not going to mention the likes
ofCliffhanger).
Thinking about Ralstons ordeal has me
wondering what level of first aid I should be
carrying into the backcountry. My training,
like so many fellow skiers and mountain
bikers I know, has long since lapsed. Sure
I can tie tight that bleeding stump, but Ive
gone hazy on the details of chest wounds
and spinal fractures. New medical research
has also updated standards in basic first
aid over the past few years. In 2010, good
ol CardioPulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)
even changed its breathing regime, requiring
a new, arm-intensive 30:2 ratio of chest
compressions to breath ventilations. The oldmemory moniker of ABC (Airway, Breathing,
Chest Compressions) switched up to CAB.
And theres a different ratio for children
(15:2). In short, my skills are dwindling.
Besides getting recertified and taking a
Wilderness First Aid course, is the WMS for
me? Indeed, shouldnt I, and others like
me, get a bit more educated so that should
the karma cards come up short, the steps to
survival will be clear?
We do, after all, live in Whistler and
play on its boundaries. Take a jaunt East or
West and it be lonely back there. It is also
vast inside the Valley. As I discovered three
years ago, even a minor escapade along Cut
Yer Bars can result in broken wrists and acareful walk out.
To this end, tuning up with challenging,
hands-on wilderness medical education is
one of the prime goals of the WMS.
Nurse, turn on thelights its DiMM!
In 2005, the WMS launched the Academy of
Wilderness Medicine a series of standards
for certified education in wilderness
medicine, organized as a modular system of
adult education combining both classroom
and practice, held to critical standards of
academic excellence. In short: you better be
good both in the field and in the books.
Currently, at least in the United States,
and I think everywhere, you dont have to
have any specific training to hold yourself out
as a wilderness medical practitioner, saysGreenway, reflecting upon one of the main
missions of the Society: wilderness medical
education. If youre a physician, it doesnt
matter what your background is, you can say
that youre a wilderness medical practitioner
without having any experience or formal
training in wilderness medicine. The same
can be said for mountain medicine.
To this end, the WMS set out to create a
diploma program to standardize mountain
medicine.
What [DiMM] will provide is a group
of individuals who actually have a codified
background and experience in mountain
medicine, explains Greenway, specifically
in search and rescue mountain medicine,who have been tested, and who have
demonstrated the skills necessary to really
know what theyre doing in the outdoors.
DiMM is geared specifically to medical
practitioners; while doctors receive a
diploma; mid-level medical personnel
receive a certification, even though the
course content and exams are the same.
For those with Wilderness First Aid, or
who are Wilderness EMTs, this would be
a logical next step. Besides the didactic
education required in the classroom, the
DiMM features hands-on training in the
backcountry, blending technical rescue,
wilderness medicine and self-sufficiency,
while moving through the disciplines ofexpedition medicine, search and rescue
operations, mountain guiding, ski patrol,
and mountain recreation. Candidates must
also be competent in the backcountry
as hikers and basic-level climbers, with
snow travel and cold weather camping
experience. The DiMM is an internationally
recognized certification, satisfying the hard
requirements thrown down by the worlds
guiding associations including UIAA, ICAR
and ISMM.
To this end, the DiMM would be a
worthy course for a Whistler University
while offering diplomas in tourism and
hotel management might satisfy the Bates
Motel crowd, expanding any planned higher-education to include in-depth training in
wilderness medicine and emergency
response would create a whole other level of
academic training in the Valley one that
the Corridor (and beyond) needs, and one
that Whistler could undertake exceptionally
well given its current setting as a DIMMs
course location for its outdoor environs.
Though the WMS offers the DiMM
through the University of Utah and the
University of Colorado, similar training is
already available here in Canada through
The Canadian Society of Mountain Medicine,
which has a DiMM module upcoming from
September 9th15th.
FeatureSTORY
Don t mess wi t h a man
wi t h bot h J i u- J i t s u and
medi cal serpent t ats .
Thi s be one of t hos e
l ev el ni ne sel f - heal i n
ni n j a types who can st i ck
your eyes out wi t h one
hand and sut ure hi s own
wounds wi t h the ot her.
J us t sayi n .