>>The beauty of the internet is you can choose to believe whatever you want.

I hope I'm not getting out of line here, but I'm not even going to pretend I understand the logic behind that statement.

What you choose to believe is irrelevant. Try believing you're an eagle, and jump off a cliff; see how much additional hang-time your "freedom to believe" nets you.

Rest, elevation, and direct pressure will control bleeding, regardless of whether you choose to believe it or not. Likewise, closing a contaminated wound with superglue, or smearing butter on a second degree burn, may result in infection and blood poisoning - regardless of whether you choose to believe it or not.

>>I encourage you to put the same level of skeptisism you approach my opinion with, to all opinions you read on this webboard, especially those of an MD.

Why "especially those of an MD"? That makes no sense; are you really saying I should be more skeptical of someone who's thoroughly trained than of someone who isn't?

First of all, trusbx isn't just an MD, he's someone whose opinion I have come to respect. Second, his advice is in line with mainstream medical opinion; yours is not. Third, there are valid medical reasons for why his advice is better than yours, regardless of who has what letters behind his name. For example, even I can understand that nobody is going to bleed to death from a cut to the palm of the hand; whereas they could die from blood poisoning, infection, or necrotizing fasciitis. Therefore, it makes logical sense that preventing infection is more important than closing the wound.

>>Just to clarify, we're dealing with a survival paradigm,

Well, you were not dealing with a survival situation. Nobody is going to bleed to death from a cut on the palm of the hand.

>> so superglu isn't used to prevent infection or aid in healing time or anything similar to that. Its sole purpose is to keep the wound closed.

Preventing infection should be your first priority for a non-life-threatening wound, and your second priority should be to stop the bleeding. Stopping the bleeding and closing the wound are two different things, btw.

>>Since this young lady's wound was on the palm of her hand and was very deep, it most likely would have needed suturing.

Says who? I.e on what medical authority do you base this statement?

>>But by the time we could've gotten her to a clinic the wound would have closed enough on its own that no MD would advise suturing.

Again, on what medical authority do you base this statement?

>>Climbers are an unusual breed, I admit, and usually when things go bad for us we must act quickly, independently, and with very limit resources at hand.

All the more reason to get proper training, and not rely on old wives' tales and home remedies. <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Sorry, I seem to be coming across a bit strong here; and believe me, if this was just an academic point of interest, like "Are Sebenzas really worth over $200?" I'd probably just drop it. But imagine how you'd feel if someone came on this forum and tried arguing that a reef knot was just as good as a follow-through Figure-8 for tying yourself off to a belay line? <img src="images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />