Man treats injuries, coached by smartphone (fixed)

Here is what killer apps are all about: a guy got trapped under the rubble with an iPhone and used the latter's wise supervision to survivve for 65 hours, right until SaR got to him.
I'm actually worried about the wave of people googling "first aid app" and hitting a wall of fraudulent claims...
Apologize if this has been posted before.

Edit: fixed link

That is a cool sory!

There are quite a few different articles about this US documentary filmaker and various articles say different things about the details. Here's another short one about how he used that first aid app on his iPhone to treat a compound leg fracture and a gash in his head. And it says that he also used the light from his digital SLR camera to observe his surroundings in the darkness.

Some articles say that he used the light from his iPhone to see. Others, like the article I linked to, simply say that he used the light from his digital SLR. But probably the most accurate description is that he took flash photographs of his surroundings and then looked at the photos to study his surroundings. The light from a flash would be much brighter and illuminate much further than simply holding up his iPhone or digital camera and trying to directly light up his surroundings with the light from the screens.

Still, the most poignant part of the short article I linked to has nothing to do with technology. It describes how he scribbled good-bye notes to his kids in his notebook, in case he didn't make it out. One somewhat morbid reason to always carry pen and paper, although in certain situations, pen and paper could be the most important thing in the world to a person.

Actually, come to think of it, this story about a guy getting first aid advice from an iPhone app reminded me of a brand of first aid kit that came out a number of years back. Smaller sub-kits for different injuries (burns, cuts, fractures, etc.) were color coded. But the interesting part was that it comes with this handheld electronic device that verbally asks the person questions to figure out the problem, and then suggests how to deal with the problem.

Some may dismiss the need for such a device, saying just take a good first aid course, but probably most of us have experienced our minds going blank in a stressful situation, so I can see the benefit of anything that helps coach a person through such a situation. Anyway, just a random thought.

That seems like a dangerous trend. The lesson here appears to be "Don't bother learning important or useful survival information ... just bring your i-phone with the appropriate apps and you'll be alright." Nothing wrong with improvising and using what's available to survive and nothing inherently wrong with technology but you must also learn to recognize its limitations. You have to learn the basics first and then when using the technology you will more easily recognize its limitations (and not take it for granted the technology will always be right). Case in point: I made it through college level Calculus I and Calculus II without a graphing calculator, just a basic Texas Instruments scientific calculator. After learning the basics and eventually getting a graphing calculator I was then able to recognize the limitations of the technology. No relevance, just an example. FWIW.