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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Importance of Medical Accessibility!‏

Just wanted to reinforce the correctness of your stance on being close enough to town/city to get good medical care in a timely fashion. 
My aunt lives in the Western US 2+ hours from any specialist type of medical care and even hit and miss ambulance type access if the weather is bad.  This remoteness came back to bite her this last week when she had an emergency and was not able to get to a specialist until 4 days later when the roads/weather cleared enough to drive into where they needed to go. 
She did finally get an ambulance to her on the icy roads, but they where not able to help her and she did not receive any help until my uncle was able to drive her into the city 4 days later.
As a result of burst blood vessel in her eye or some such thing she not only was in excruciating pain, but is also likely blind now as well.
-SD

Hi SD, Indeed its one of those things that people overlook. They will chose to live 100 miles from the nearest town because its supposedly safer when the hordes of stupid city folks suddenly turned into zombie locusts come rolling down, yet they completely ignore the most logical, most probable causes of death which usually requires immediate medical attention and your odds of survival drop 5% every minute you delay it.
FerFAL
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8 comments:

TOR said...

From my experience in the PNW most isolated medium (using a country perspective so places that have a couple grocery stores, fast food, etc) sized cities have a beefed up "clinic" if not a hospital that can deal with the usual array of injuries like nastly colds and emergencies like broken bones, cuts, etc.

There are many factors to consider in choosing where to live. Your individual medical needs, and likely projected needs are a big one. If you have to regularly see a specialist then you probably want to live a reasonable distance from them.

In the military for trama we have something called "the golden hour". Unless something kills you immediately if you can get to medical treatment (namely a hospital w/ some surgical capability) medical facility within an hour the odds of living are very good. If you can't make it the odds get bad in a hurry.

That might not be a bad standard for folks to consider when looking for a residence. Of course incliment weather can reek havok on those timelines by slowing down timelines or making roads empassable. It is worthwhile to consider this when doing relatively high risk activities. Not running a chainsaw, etc when the roads have a foot of snow on them might be a good rule.

Anonymous said...

I am a MD in a rural er and can say with confidence that if you cannot reach a higher level of care (than most have at home) within about a half hour you will likely not survive most serious emergencies. In a serious civil disruption however, you will probably not get an ambulance in a timely fashion either so you should plan accordingly.
I am developing a very isolated and well defended habitat that I may or may not utilize but have included a protected area for an ultralight aircraft to reach the nearest high level medical facility. Not necessarily for me, but for family---if you are by yourself....good luck.

hsu said...

@Anonymous
Well defended? By who? A 24x7 security detail? If so, it's nice to be a billionaire who can afford to relocate well trained guards along with their family to an isolated area.

Anonymous said...

Out in the western US people subscribe to helicopter service plans where, if something serious happens and the weather is amenable, they're able to be helicoptered to the hospital - of course those who aren't on some plan are too, but then they get a big bill in the mail lol.

Chainsaws scare the hell out of me. My dad had table saws, radial saws, Skilsaws, and such old-time goodies as draw-knives, and used 'em all. But he had lots of various hand saws and I grew up using them because you know how kids are, it was my version of fun. I cut up some pretty big trees with a little hand saw. I only cut myself with it once, when up in a tree, and it was slight enough that I was able to laugh to my friend about getting my "sap" on the tree as opposed to its sap getting on me, for a change, as I climbed down, dripping a bit of blood.

economiccollapsedad said...

I totally agree that in an economic collapse, you have to have access to good medical care. It might be a stroke or bout of food poisening rather than a rioting mob that kills people. In fact a friend of mine was stuck in a snow storm last year, his wife was ready to give birth just around that time. And for her to deliver in a hospital, they had to hitch a ride on a snow plow. That's how important access to a doctor can be.

Anonymous said...

" hsu said...
@Anonymous
Well defended? By who? A 24x7 security detail? If so, it's nice to be a billionaire who can afford to relocate well trained guards along with their family to an isolated area.

December 31, 2011 10:46 AM"

You are really quite stupid aren't you? What makes you think I am a billionaire? Do you think you need an army to defend a position?
You will not survive long because you will spend your time demanding "justice" or "revenge" against those that you feel did not give you everything your life for free. In Bosnia they called people like you "targets".

hsu said...

@Anonymous
Wow, such viral for pointing out the obvious flaw in your plan, a flaw that Ferfal points out all the time.

If you've been reading Ferfal's blog, you would know that life goes on, even in the worst of times.

You still have to work, you still have to sleep, your kids still need schooling, you still need to leave the house to run errands, you still have to buy groceries, etc.

And during those times, your house will be undefended, or your wife will be undefended, or your kids will be undefended. Only the rich are well defended, because they can pay for 24x7 security. Everyone else makes compromises.

Anonymous said...

Interesting to me how even here, those less fortunate are turning on those with means. I believe that the future holds very lethal prospects for the "rich" at the hands of the "poor".