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You are here: Home / Reviews / Books / DIY medical care

DIY medical care

By Staff Reports | September 28, 2010

Cover art for When There is no Doctor

BOOK REVIEW

When There Is No Doctor: Preventive and Emergency Healthcare in Uncertain Times (Process Self-reliance Series)

By Gerard S. Doyle
Process Press, 2010, $17.95

Even if you’re not ready to come to terms with the possibility of a very different world in our near future, When There Is No Doctor would be an important addition to your family library, especially if you’re looking for a medical career in the future, you might find these Graduate program and career exploration resources extremely helpful also.

An emphasis on preventive medicine, basic healthcare principles, and simple skills is helpful and useful for every cold season and minor household accident; it also can help cut costs by avoiding unnecessary trips to the doctor on issues you can handle yourself.

But of course, whilst knowing how to solve a medical emergency from the comfort of your own home is important, you still need to remember that some hospital trips are necessary, especially when you find yourself in a life or death situation. So, if you were to make this trip, you’d want the hospital to have all the medical equipment they need to treat you. For example, if someone you know had a cardiac arrest, you’d want the facility to have access to a defibrillator right? And if they do, they should have looked into this program management for AEDs to ensure that they can be purchased in the first place. Thankfully, hospitals all around the world are equipped to deal with any emergency, so make sure you go to one if you are in need of critical treatment. Everything else, however, could be carried out at home.

Short term emergencies such as big storms happen all over the country at all times of the year and could keep us from getting to the hospital or the hospital from having the resources to meet everyone’s needs. It’s great to feel empowered in that kind of situation, rather than powerless. The main purpose of this book, however, is to help us help ourselves and our neighbors in a time of serious and perhaps long term disruption. After reading this book and perhaps also reading sites like https://avive.life/guides/call-push-shock/, anybody will have the knowledge that could in fact save someone’s life. Although most of the emergencies we have at home may be a steep fall or a deep cut, having the knowledge to react to numerous emergencies is a great and proactive attitude to have.

With a can-do attitude that is very empowering for the lay person, Dr. Doyle encourages us to get easily available training and supplies now, before we need them. Simply getting more fit now will help to avoid many injuries and reduce the stress of a future of more physical work. Many options are presented for expanding your knowledge base, from community first aid classes to higher credentialed courses. Recommended equipment and supplies include information about clever improvisations that you can use with things on hand at home. Basic preventive medicine and sickroom care is reviewed with some information on more serious emergencies like fractures and fluid replacement. Doing some research into the best first aid kits beforehand might give you an idea of some of the items that can be of help in responding to a medical emergency – visit this link if you’re interested in possessing such a kit yourself.

While it is in no way meant to be the only source one would need, there are many practical tips and tricks spread throughout the book that are specific for a no-hospital situation. Coverage of psychological issues for caregivers and patients, along with ethical issues, is also an important inclusion.

As the modern medical system gets more and more complex, costly, and dependent on fancy technology, we need to learn more fundamental and sustainable ways to provide ourselves with safe, basic preventative healthcare and lower tech solutions that have stood the test of time. When There Is No Doctor is a great starting point.

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: family, health, homesteading, local economy, medicine, Oct 2010

About Staff Reports

Transition Voice is the online magazine on peak oil, climate change, economic crisis, and the Transition Town movement. Located in Staunton, Virginia, Transition Voice was designed by Curren Media Group. Transition Voice welcomes content submissions and donations of support. All articles on Transition Voice are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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