Emergency First Aid for Industrial and Remote Settings

About the Book

This book was originally designed largely for those who work in remote places associated with an environmental hazard such as heat or cold. Since it has been used for the families left at home it also has general appeal. Basically it is a first-aid book but it is presented so that it provides an understanding of the basic nature of the various emergency situations not only to allow appropriate first-aid to be administered but also to care for the casualty for a time if evacuation from the remote place is delayed or even absent. It also trains the casualty handler to communicate an appreciation of the problem to a remote doctor so that he will be in a position to provide quality advice. The book avoids technical terms and is presented in the simple and yet detailed terms of a series of lectures. Certain important areas are thus repeated for emphasis so that a full understanding of the subject can rapidly and painlessly be acquired. It is based on the lecture material for the course which was originally part of the system for remote personnel operating in the offshore oil and gas industry in the North Sea and which was subsequently found to be equally useful for the personnel of the British Antarctic Survey operating in small parties far from base. The lecture course has also been extensively used by oil company personnel in the Middle East, particularly those who operate in lonely desert areas or offshore. The book is illustrated by clinical pictures and diagrams to show the nature of the injuries and conditions described such as burns, fractures, wounds, bleeding, eye injuries, heat illness, etc. This introduces the trainee to the types of emergency which he may be called upon to manage and helps to determine how best they should be treated in both urban and remote situations. The descriptions of such fundamental areas as the management of unconsciousness, the nature of respiratory and circulatory failure and resuscitation are also fully complimented by diagrams and photographs.

About the Author

John Nelson Norman, MD, DSc, PhD, FRCS (Edin, Glasg.), FFOM, Finst Biol. is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Medicine at the University of Aberdeen, UK. He graduated in medicine from the University of Glasgow in 1957. Thereafter he spent the greater part of his National Service in the Antarctic Survey Station at Halley Bay and while there he developed an interest in environmental and remote medicine. He then proceeded to become an academic surgeon working in the departments of surgery at Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities. Since his main academic, surgical interests were hyperbaric medicine, hypothermia and the care of the seriously ill surgical patient he developed an immediate interest in the care of offshore industrial personnel when the North Sea offshore oil and gas industry was established. The industry had similar medical problems complicated by time and distance from medical help and a hazardous environment. He developed a system of medicine for the North Sea and subsequently for the British Antarctic Survey and other Remote work-sites. He established the British Antarctic Survey Medical Unit in Aberdeen and was its first Chief Medical Officer. The philosophy of Remote Medicine was promoted from the Institute of Environmental and Offshore Medicine at Aberdeen University and the Centre for Offshore Health at the Robert Gordon University both of which he established and directed. The first tenet of the remote medicine system was immediate care training for the population at risk and the very successful course which he designed and taught for over twenty years in Aberdeen, the Middle and Far East, the Antarctic and many other remote international sites is set out in this book. He spent his last professional five or six years as Professor of Community Medicine at the UAE University, Al-Ain, Abu Dhabi where the course was delivered to the oil and gas industry, the traffic police, non-medical University personnel and medical students, in association with the co-authors of the book who added much to the final concept.