Wilderness Medicine 6th Edition: Essential First Aid & Survival Guide for Outdoor Adventures, Hiking, and Emergency Preparedness

I have a Master's Degree in Epidemiology and I'm a former EMT as well as having taught first aid (ARC) and CPR (ARC & AHA). Wilderness medicine has been a life-long fascination of mine and unfortunately (fortunately?) I've had ample opportunities to put my skills and training to the test in remote areas. I have approximately 100 wilderness medicine related books in my library and I've owned every edition of this book. Having said all that I like to think my opinion on this book is a qualified one. I asked myself a simple question: If I was in the bush with [insert name] and was injured or ill to a reasonable degree but unable to offer assistance of any kind, which book would I want [insert name] to have to effectively treat me? I chose this book, "Wilderness Medicine."Admittedly the decision was a close one. But when I took all mitigating factors into consideration, "Wilderness Medicine" edged out all the rest. The reasons for my choice are simple. It is "selectively thorough" meaning that Dr. Forgey addresses those situations you are most likely to see and omits that which is exceedingly uncommon.The book is approachable by non-medically trained people. Anyone with a modicum of education and with the proper supplies can use this book to provide effective medical treatment.Third, I wanted the author to keep in mind the circumstances and the treatment environment. There's more than a few brilliant wilderness medical texts that automatically assume you're going on an expedition to the Himalayas with a staff physician and an unlimited budget for medical gear and complete with a squad of Sherpas to carry it all. Dr. Forgey kept things in perspective, especially in adhering to his basic philosophy of utilizing multifunctional and improvised components while still having redundant capabilities.Another reason this book gets the nod is the section on cardiac care including a drug list that enables effective treatment. There was a time when most serious wilderness trekkers were young and fit and healthy. No so any longer. The very young and the very old can be found in a lot of places you'd never expect to see them. Same for the unfit. I actually stopped hiking my favorite day trail on weekends...I simply grew tired of treating heat related illnesses and dehydration and musculoskeletal injuries caused by obesity. Carrying a sick or injured fat kid uphill to the trail head is not how I wanted to spend my weekends.Of course there are a few things I wish this book would have been addressed better, and that's why I gave it four stars instead of five. I would have preferred better coverage of pediatric/child injuries including drugs and dosages.Since this book is geared towards sustained travel in remote areas I would like to see some long (2-3 weeks) term issues addressed. Complete urinary retention can be fatal. I would like to see more attention paid to wet-to-dry wound care in lieu of sutures/staples. I have encountered what I consider to be a higher than normal number of eye injuries, especially among campers who build open fires. I even developed a very light cobalt blue light source for foreign body detection.In the 6th ed. Dr. Forgey has seriously scaled back his recommended medical kit. Prior editions included a well thought out very sophisticated medical surgical assemblage that seemingly reached it's pinnacle of development in the 4th ed. In this edition (and the 5th) it's been reduced to a splinter removal-hemorrhoid treatment first aid kit unworthy of being called a medical kit. I'm not sure why this was done. Admittedly the kit was very expensive especially if you opted for imported German surgical instruments (Miltex brand-$$$$) as I did. But I don't think that justified cutting it back that seriously, especially for something so critical as your medical kit.In fact, I'm going to use this venue to ask Dr. Forget for a new edition. A lot of very effective products he recommended in earlier editions are no longer available or are impossible to find: Nu Gauze pads, Spyroflex everything, Beirsdorf CoverStrip II wound closure tape, pontocaine ophthalmic OINTMENT (incredibly easy to use...I sorely miss it!)...and other items I can't recall at the moment. So come on Doc! Your number one...at the top! Give us a 7th ed. and stay there.