Hazards we face - What are the odds?

Recent discussion in another thread caused me to ponder - What are the odds of death/injury from different hazards - falling, drowning, firearms,whatever??

I ran across this for openers. The source is the national Safety Council:

https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/all-injuries/historical-preventable-fatality-trends/deaths-by-cause/

I am not surprised that automobile accidents and falls are very common. The increase in poisoning is rather startling, but this increase is being reported in the media. looks like we-should add Narcan to our FAKs...

I am sure there must be more to this subject than the simple chart presented here. Discussion is in order.

I’m not sure that Narcan is an OTC that would be readily available as a “just-in-case” for FAK’s...

Doh! I stand corrected... What is Narcan? 12 things to know about the drug now sold at Walgreens. Narcan nasal spray is available at Walgreens as an OTC med.

That said, do we want to discuss the ongoing opioid epidemic that makes such an OTC med necessary?

In my experience (as an ambulance paramedic for many years), the one single hazard that causes more deaths is ......... alcohol!

Actually, it is not the sole cause, but is a contributing factor in many many deaths when mixed with a variety of other factors (although it can be a cause of death in and of itself). Alcohol and cars, bad. Alcohol and guns, bad. Alcohol and other drugs, bad. Alcohol and boats, bad. Alcohol and BBQ grills, bad. Alcohol and additional alcohol, bad. Alcohol and roofs, bad. Alcohol and severe cold weather outside, bad. Alcohol and stairs, bad. Alcohol and stupid males doing a variety of stupid male things, bad.

Lol.

Since weed is legal here in Canada now I have noticed a reduction in alcohol related stupidity. I was at a mess function recently where it wasn’t uncommon in the past for people to get loud, roudy and start talking with their fists. This time everyone was mellow, chill, and besides the word “dude” being grossly overused nothing occurred out of the ordinary. Most people went home early and that was that.

Outside of occupation hazards that come with work, car accidents, drowning, cancer and suicide seem to be the things that are offing most folks I know. Very rarely someone dies hunting or doing som other outdoors activity due to some mishap. Vehicle accidents (even during military training exercises) are still the biggest thing by a large margin.

So not only is Narcan available at Walgreens, it’s available on Amazon.com, delivered to your door.

There’s definitely a market which means there’s a problem... reminds me of the drug prescription I filled just prior to some outpatient surgery — opioids. They are way too easy to get. I didn’t need them, I took all of one 800mg Motrin and called it good; the opioids were prescribed just-in-case I might need them with zero discussion of the dark side. Are we as a society so put off by a little pain that we would prefer a pain-killer epidemic... That’s a rhetorical question, hence no question mark. Just something to ponder.

As a former vice,narcotics, intelligence investigator for two and a half years.AKA a NARC I bought a lot of drugs on the street, from dope dealers. Here is my two cents,street drug users do not want help. Just like a lot of homeless people.
Drugs i.e. narcotics prescribed by Doctors, are being used as a scapegoat by
Pxxxxxxxxx , and they should stay out of medicine.
Also if you have never been in so much pain that you consider the end, you have no place at the table. Rant off

Drug overdose is something I’ve fortunately never had to consider in my travels. I can’t say I would feel comfortable administering narcan or any such thing unless I had the proper training. Even then carrying some just in case seems like overkill. May as well carry a defibrillator around while I’m at it just so I get all the “what if” scenarios covered.

If I happen across someone who needs first aid I will try my best to help and hope that if I ever needed the same someone would help me. I carry basic items and have decent training in their use.

This stuff seems to go beyond normal first aid however. I am not a doctor or a paramedic. I assume most cases where this would be an issue would be an urban setting. Hopefully medical assistance wouldn’t be unreasonable long in arriving.

My understanding is that Narcan is easy to administer and is very unlikely to hurt someone. But I've never been trained on its use.

What I have in my EDC bag goes beyond the typical "What if?" Along those lines, there has to be a limit.

Is it within the realm of possibility I may need to use a defibrillator on the person? Yes. Should I EDC a defibrillator simply because it's within the realm of possibility that I will use one? Factoring in the cost, size, weight and the fact that almost every commercial building has one, I would have to say no.

The simple reality is, it's not possible to cover every scenario. As I've said many times: experience is your best teacher. Experience has taught me what and what not to EDC. Why then make a bleeding kit for my EDC bag when the most significant incident I encountered was slicing the palm of my with a box cutter? All that was needed was to clean the wound, apply gauze and wrap it with first aid tape. I have all that in my Traveler Kit. Why would I need a bleeding kit in addition to what I currently have if I never needed one?

The simple answer is I crunched the numbers and came to the conclusion that the probability justifies the cost, space and weight of a CPR & Bleeding Kit.

Jeanette Isabelle

We used to give it IV, but now it comes as a nasal spray. So it has gotten trivial to administer. If you need Narcan, you need it. If you don't, it doesn't hurt you.

But here's a bit of advice from my experience:

Once you administer the Narcan, step back. That way when the druggie wakes up abruptly (and they do!) and wants to smack someone in the face for ruining their high, you are out of reach. I have had several of these druggies lunge at me.

Our ambulance standing protocol for "Unconscious, unknown reason" was Narcan (in case narcotics are the cause) and D50W (in case insulin shock is the cause). Narcan is harmless. If the patient is in diabetic coma (as opposed to insulin shock) then D50W is technically the opposite of what you want, but their blood sugar is already so high that an amp of D50W isn't going to make any difference. Mind you, I was a paramedic 25 years ago, so protocols may have changed since then.

Ditto. My department did not issue Narcan, but the State Dept of Health had an evening instructional session, with a free pouch of Narcan in town. I thought it might be more useful at the soupkitchen where AuntGoo and I volunteer. The instruction took all of an hour, including discussion about all the social issues. Practical instruction consisted of "Squirt the stuff up their nose and jump back: if it's going to work, they're going to come up swinging. Have an ambulance on the way."
I have not used it, but was present when a co-worker did on an overdose. The instructions were accurate.

Alcohol, cars, stairs. All the 'normal' risks. What that National Safety Council list doesn't include are the 'Black Swans.' The low probability, high impact events - civil disorder, EMP, grid failure.

The so called "Black Swans" just don't appear,although they have occurred - consider the civil unrest o the late 60's like the 1967 Detroit riots. There is always the possibility of a dinosaur killing, game changing event like a large asteroid impact, but this graph doesn't pretend to be a predictive model.

EMPs? People are killed by lightning strikes and similar phenomena all the time, but the overall numbers simply aren't that great, thus they are lumped in the "other causes" category. I must admit I am surprised at the relatively low number of firearm fatalities.

Day in and day out, the more common mechanisms of car accident, etc. are more likely to end your days than some exotic event. In either eventuality, a decent FAK along with the training and knowledge to employ it effectively will be useful.