Flag on the play!!!!

A deep cut received in the field not irrigated or sterilized but sealed == infection, swelling and potentially gangrene. Get the kid to a doc soon and see if there is any sign of infection and if the wound has healed over you might want to get a script for antibiotics. This isn't anything to fool with. Generally if there is a deep wound in the field that doesn't seem likely to amount to severe blood loss you shouild leave it open and irrigate regularly with sterile (read "boiled at least") water. If you must close it due to the potential for blood loss or because travel will likely result in further introduction of foreign matter (this usually only applies to foot wounds - any other part of the anatomy can be loosly wrapped to prevent introduction of debris.) then you need to debride the wound (this means scrubbing out any potentially foreign material and possible infected material, and wash with something like betadine, iodine, or alcohol or hydrogen peroxide to sterilize before you attempt to close the wound.

I'm sure that there will be other, better qualified, voices heard from soon. ParamedicPete? BeachDoc? TruxBx?