No sarcasm intended, but your best option for finding water in the desert is to look for it in the water containers you kept on your person or in your car. Barring an outstanding streak of pure luck, your assessment of "get ready to write your last words" is correct.

In more general terms, I think this line of discussion underscores a valid point: sometimes survival training's best purpose is to deeply convince yourself that you don't want to get into that situation in the first place.

I went through this via my EMS training. Now that I'm certified NREMT-I and have worked on some messed up people, I realize that the bottom line is this: do all you can to avoid serious injury, because outside of a properly-operating hospital, your options are pretty darn limited.

Our friend here Polak187 told me as much long ago, but I had to see it myself to understand.