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 Save Lives, Save Limbs
Life
support for victims of mines, wars, and accidents Third
World: US$10.00 paperback
Orders of minimum 4 copies - 50% postage reduction (Europe, US, Canada only) ISBN:
983-9747-42-8 Publishers:
You can also order this book directly at our Online Bookstore The following editions of Save Lives, Save Limbs can be ordered at Tromsoe Mine Victim Resource Center <tmc@unn.no>: Farsi, Burmese, Khmer, Kurdish, Portuguese and Spanish For further information on ordering teaching aids, please go to www.traumacare.no
When a land mine explodes every 10 minutes somewhere in the world - taking or maiming another life - it makes the appearance of Save Lives, Save Limbs all the more timely. This book is indispensible for anyone involved in mine victims assistance, relief work in civil disasters, or even first aid in emergencies and accidents. Yet there is more to Save Lives, Save Limbs than life-saving first aid and surgery - it is also a guide to self-empowerment for rural communities stalked by this deadly epidemic. Step by step it shows how villagers in the South can build support networks to handle victims of mines and other disasters - taking into account the differences in infrastructure, terrain and clime, in healthcare and socioeconomic systems. The handbook's exceptional qualities are due to its radical departure from common Western medical orthodoxies: * It is not true that only qualified staff can give qualified life support. Victims start dying at the time of injury. Immediate first aid by lay first responders can save lives. * It is not true that non-graduate rural folk are too "ignorant" to staff and manage health networks-traning programs by themselves. With training at "village universities", they are able to set up sustainable chains of survival for trauma victims of mines and other medical emergencies. * It is not true that indigenous resources and knowledge, locally adapted equipment and training aids are inferior to Western standards and imports. On the contrary - not only are they better - there is often no other way to build sustainable capacities. SLSL is the result of 10 years' teamwork experience of the authors and local health workers in Afghanistan, Burma, Cambodia, Kurdistan and Angola who have treated thousands of trauma victims and set up numerous "chains of survival" under all kinds of adverse, even harrowing, conditions. This guidebook is useful for mine medics and first aid trainees; teachers training health workers, organizers of medical/health services or mine-assistance programs; and A&E hospital staff. About
the authors: ------------------------------------------------------
"Everyone whose work involves contact with mine-affected communities should consider this book a vital resource." - Rae McGrath, Nobel Prize laureate, 1997 "Had I had this book in my work as a health worker and trainer of health workers in the mountains of Mexico, many persons who died from stabbings, bullet wounds and traumatic accidents in remote villages might still be alive today. A splendid and important book." - David Werner, Author of Where There is No Doctor, Helping Health Workers Learn, and Nothing About Us Without Us. "Talk of the empowerment of impoverished and repressed communities is all too often empty rhetoric. This book is a concrete example of what can be done, practically and pragmatically, to help save lives and limbs. In the didactic traditions of Where There is No Doctor and community solidarity work, this book is an excellent addition in helping to fill an important gap." - Chris Paul Giannou MD, Head of Unit of Surgery and Hospital Assistance, ICRC. (The views expressed are those of CPG and do not necessarily represent those of the ICRC.) "This book is the outcome of a long and intensive experience in minefields and war zones in the South where there are no helicopters, no ambulances, and where hospitals are far away. By answering the question of whom to train, where and how to save lives and limbs, this manual is an invaluable resource for all workers in the field." - Claude Romer MD and Pierre Bwale MD, PVI, WHO Geneva "Everyone who faces injury is frightened - the victim, their family or friends, and even the medic. This book has been written by people like you. They have seen what you see. They know that to meet and overcome the fear needs knowledge, understanding and practice. Only in this way can you begin the journey to save your victim's limbs and lives. The first step on this path is to open the book - so do it now." - Colin Robertson MD, PhD, Consultant in Accident and Emergency Medicine, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh "This excellent handbook for medics will enable the world to give appropriate early care to thousands of trauma victims. It will empower communities to handle devastating injuries by encouraging them to develop local care structures and teach life support. This excellent text tells individuals and communities in detail how to give emergency care and set up training programs. Good first aid requires education and organization. Without either, precious time is lost in victim care. This manual shows how to do it." - James C. Cobey, MD, MPH, Physicians for Human Rights Health Volunteers Overseas, Washington, DC "This concise, superbly produced, and richly illustrated volume is an eye opener. I strongly recommend this book as compulsory reading to all health care professionals...and to all doctors, students and paramedical staff of Third World countries - since trauma and its care involves all of them. The authors emphasise a holistic approach to the trauma victim. They tell us what can be achieved under the most trying conditions. Their suggestions are pragmatic, and their recommendations achievable; that is reason enough to read this book." - Lt Col K M Rai, SM, Department of General and Vascular Surgery, Army Hospital (Research & Referral), Delhi, India
Contents Foreward
by Rae McGrath SECTION
1: The body's response to injury SECTION
2: Simple life support SECTION
3: Advanced life support SECTION
4: Case stories from real life SECTION
5: The chain of survival SECTION
6: The Village University Some
practical advice: Drawings
of the body
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